9 o 



Scientific Proceedings (57). 



is, therefore, of relatively slight importance as compared with the 

 presence of antigen in the cells. Therefore, ,it may , be. said .that 

 just as the presence of antibody in the serum is ineffective in 

 making a guinea-pig hypersensitive, so, too, it fails adequately to 

 explain the mechanism of immunity and of anti-anaphylaxis. 

 The latter phenomenon, likewise, is predominantly cellular, and 

 is due to the presence of antigen in the cell. 



Conclusions. 



1. The presence of antibody in the circulating blood alone does 

 not make a guinea-pig hypersensitive. Such a result is achieved 

 only by the presence of antibodies in the cells of the body. 



2. The presence of antibody in the blood of the desensitized 

 or of the immunized guinea-pig is only a subsidiary part of the 

 mechanism of protection against anaphylactic shock. The pres- 

 ence of antigen within the cell is the effective factor, which so 

 lowers the reactivity of the cellular antibody that additional 

 antigen fails to produce the characteristic anaphylactic response. 



3. By means of a special technique, the coexistence of antigen 

 and antibody within the same cellular tissue is demonstrated. 



50 (867) 



On the clinical value of the serum skin test in tuberculosis. 



By J. Bronfenbrenner. 



[From the Pathological and Research Laboratories of the Western 

 Pennsylvania Hospital, Pittsburgh, Pa.] 



In the work on Intraperitoneal Lysis of Tubercle Bacilli re- 

 ported to this society last year by Dr. Manwaring and myself, 1 

 the conclusion was reached that tubercle bacilli injected in the 

 peritoneal cavity of tuberculous guinea pigs undergo rapid de- 

 struction, due to the specific activity of peritoneal tissue cells 

 which apparently did not depend on circulating antibody. In the 

 experiments taken up this year, with the purpose of studying more 

 closely the changes in the blood of tuberculous guinea-pigs, several 

 interesting phenomena were found, to be reported in detail else- 



1 Centrbl. f. Bad. Ref., Bd. 59, No. 12, p. 371, and Journ. of Exp. Med., 1913, 

 Vol. XVIII, no. 6, p. 601. 



