26 



Scientific Proceedigns (109). 



degree below normal, paralleling the severity of symptoms, 

 the diminution in the erythrocyte content and hemoglobin 

 percentage of the blood. In view of the fact that cholesterol 

 has been shown to possess the property of neutralizing the hemo- 

 lytic action of various materials, animal and vegetable toxins, 

 an increase in the severity of symptoms in pernicious anemia 

 with the depression of this substance in the blood serum suggests 

 the utilization of this antitoxic property against the unknown 

 hemolytic toxins which are present in the body in this disease. 



The transfusion of whole blood from a donor whose serum 

 cholesterol content was relatively high, was apparently without 

 permanent influence on the cholesterol content of the serum of the 

 pernicious anaemia patient, regardless of the clinical improvement 

 which was temporarily manifest. It may be that the additional 

 cholesterol added in the infused blood contributes in a degree to 

 the temporary clinical improvement of the patient, although the 

 cholesterol level in the blood serum is maintained at a low figure 

 and is again lowered with a relapse of the symptoms. 



In pneumonia, the cholesterol in the serum was found to follow 

 a variation dependent upon the severity of the disease, the amount 

 of involvement of the lung tissue and development of the pneu- 

 monic exudate in the inflammatory process which follows the 

 bacterial invasion. There is a primary depression of the choles- 

 terol content of the serum in the first few days of the disease. 

 This depression seems to be dependent upon the severity of the 

 disease and particularly upon the degree of involvement of the 

 lung tissue by the inflammatory process. With the development 

 of an empyema, the cholesterol content of the serum remains 

 lowered until this process of inflammation is resolved. With 

 the convalescence of the patient and particularly with resolution 

 of the exudate in the lung, there is a rise in the cholesterol content 

 of the serum which amounts to a hypercholesterinaemia. This 

 rise apparently parallels the resolution of the inflammatory exudate 

 which has been shown to contain a considerable amount of choles- 

 terol. The variation in the cholesterol in serum parallels the 

 activity of the phagocytic leucocytes and owing to its colloidal 

 nature and consequent relative indiffusibility, the transportion 

 of the cholesterol to the area of inflammation is dependent upon 



