Tuberculin Reaction and Anaphylaxis. 



123 



immediately cooled and reacidified, it was found at P H 5.1 to 

 4.9 (natural acidity less than half neutralized) the destruction 

 during one hour's boiling was increased to 58 per cent. Neutral- 

 ization of a larger proportion of the natural acidity regularly 

 increased the rate of destruction of the vitamine at ioo°. When 

 alkali was added to an initial P H of II, which fell to about 9 during 

 the hour of heating, the destruction found by feeding of the juice 

 thus treated but immediately cooled and reacidified, was about 

 65 per cent. On repetition of the last mentioned experiments but 

 with reacidification omitted, and the treated juice stored up to 

 five days in the refrigerator before feeding, the destruction found 

 was 90 to 95 per cent. Whether the difference between the 

 juices which were, and those which were not, reacidified is attrib- 

 utable wholly to the prolonged action of the hydroxyl ions at a 

 temperature of io° C, and P H only 9, or whether there are here 

 involved other factors possibly including a tendency toward re- 

 versal of the destructive process upon reacidification, remains to 

 be determined. 



59 (1641) 



The tuberculin reaction and anaphylaxis as studied by the 

 Dale method. 



By HANS ZINSSER. 



[From the Department of Bacteriology, College of Physicians and 

 Surgeons, New York City.] 



It is natural that the various tuberculin reactions, as well as 

 other specific phenomena of hypersensitiveness in bacterial disease, 

 such as the mallein and typhoidin reactions should have been 

 thought of from the beginning as probably anaphylactic in nature. 



We do not think it suitable in this preliminary communication 

 to go into the details of the controversial literature that has been 

 waged for some time concerning this problem. Our studies are 

 not completed, but as far as they go, they show sharp results in 

 that we have checked up skin sensitiveness in tuberculous and 

 experimentally sensitized animals with the state of general ana- 

 phylaxis as indicated by the uterine reaction observed by the 

 Dale method. 



