10 



Scientific Proceedings (109). 



tion was made into the blood stream, or immediately thereafter, 

 some of the following signs and symptoms frequently appeared: 

 flushing, sudden feeling of warmth, restlessness, — then, pallor, 

 dyspnea, cyanosis, vomiting, and prostration. Epinephrin and 

 atropin hyperdermatically, induced relief. These manifestations, 

 apparently anaphylactic, occurred only after several days of 

 intraspinous treatments had elapsed before initial intravenous 

 serum therapy, but had no relation to the time of the last intraspi- 

 nous injection. They were not noted when combined intravenous 

 and intraspinous therapy was applied from the outset. Similar 

 observations are described by Stone and Truit 1 in their report of 

 a large series of cases of meningitis at Camp Funston, and Haden 2 

 confirms them in one of his case reports of meningitis. 



With this experience in mind, horse serum was injected into 

 rabbits intraspinously, and the resulting precipitin formation in 

 the blood was compared with that induced by similar intravenous 

 injections. In a few instances, anaphylactins were" studied. 



Normal horse serum, without preservative, was used through- 

 out these experiments. This was injected into the subarachnoid 

 space of rabbits by introducing a No. 24 Luer needle attached to a 

 glass syringe, through a sterile field just below the occipital 

 ridge in the mid-line. The needle was carried forward and 

 slightly downward until it punctured the occipito-atlantoid 

 ligament. A yield of from 0.5 c.c. to 1.0 c.c. of spinal fluid was 

 thus readily obtained. Leaving the needle in place, and dis- 

 connecting the syringe, a second syringe with a correct amount of 

 serum was then attached. By slightly withdrawing the plunger, 

 freedom from chance puncture of a vessel was assured, and the 

 serum then slowly injected. No anesthetic was needed, the 

 rabbit being securely tied in the prone position to a board and 

 the head flexed and pulled forward by the ears. 



Precipitin tests were made by mixing 0.3 c.c. of rabbit serum 

 with 0.3 c.c. of normal horse serum. After incubation at 37 0 C. 

 for one hour in a water bath, the tubes were placed in the ice 

 chest overnight, and readings made the following morning. 

 As controls, normal rabbit serum and normal sheep serum were 



1 Stone, W. J. and Truitt, R. C. P., Arch. Int. Med., 1919, xxiii, 282. 

 * Haden, R. L., Arch. Int. Med., 1919, xxiv, 514. 



