Anaphylaxis in Lower Monkeys. 



57 



29 (161 1) 



Observations on anaphylaxis in lower monkeys. 



By Hans Zinsser. 



[From the Department of Bacteriology, College of Physicians and 

 Surgeons, Columbia University.] 



It is always dangerous to apply to any species of animal 

 reasoning or theories deduced from experimental observations 

 upon another species. In no phase of immunological work is such 

 deduction more unjustified than in anaphylaxis where we know 

 that the reactions induced in different species by a reinjection of 

 proteins vary from each other in fundamental, physiological 

 mechanism. It is of course unlikely, therefore, that we can 

 justly draw conclusions from monkey experiments to conditions 

 prevailing in human beings. But some of those who have regarded 

 the occurrence of true anaphylaxis in the human being as at least 

 doubtful, have, at the same time, cited the difficulty of producing 

 anaphylactic reactions in monkeys in analogy. The problem is 

 hardly one warranting a great deal of extensive research, but in 

 connection with other work going on in our laboratory, we have 

 found it important to investigate, for ourselves, the true conditions 

 prevailing in the lower monkeys. 



The production of antibodies in monkeys has for some time 

 been a matter of controversy. Uhlenhuth 1 injected human serum 

 into Macacus rhesus and found that specific precipitins were 

 formed. Berkeley, 2 in 1913, reinvestigated this question on 

 Macacus rhesus and on a Java monkey, and found that these 

 animals treated with human, horse or dog sera, receiving four 

 injections of 1 to 2 c.c. of these sera, produced neither precipitins 

 nor complement fixing antibodies for the antigens used. He does 

 not believe, therefore, that it would be possible to utilize antisera 

 from lower monkeys for the forensic differentiation of human and 

 monkey sera, as suggested by Uhlenhuth. 



There has not been a great deal of systematic work published 

 upon monkey anaphylaxis. Yamanouchi 3 was unable to produce 



1 Uhlenhuth, Kollc and Wassermann Handbuch, Second Edition, 1913, iii, 264. 



2 Berkeley, Univ. of Calif. Publications in Pathology, 1913. ii. 105. 

 : Yamanouchi, Compt. Rend, de la Soc. Biol., 1910, lxii, 1,000. 



