584 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
this diastatic ferment is able to digest not only the tissues of inoculated 
animals, but the venomous principle or echidno-toxin itself. 
Cellular Immunity.* — Messrs. L. Camus and E. Gley have shown 
that the hedgehog is naturally very resistant to the globulicidal pro- 
perties of the ichthyotoxin of eel-serum. Not that there is any anti- 
globulicidal substance in the hedgehog’s blood ; experiments show that 
the resistance is localised in the red blood-corpuscles. 
Other animals have this cellular immunity, viz. the frog, the toad, 
the hen, the pigeon, and the bat ; their red blood-corpuscles resist the 
dissolving action of the ichthyotoxin. 
It is a remarkable fact that, although the rabbit is very susceptible, 
the young rabbit, until it opens its eyes (fifteenth to twentieth day), is 
resistant. 
An immunised doe-rabbit had young, and these were experimented 
with. Their red blood-corpuscles showed the habitual resistance, but at 
the same time their serum was found to contain autiglobulicidal sub- 
stance. Here, then, congenital and acquired immunity coexisted in the 
same organism. 
Vaccinal Immunity acquired by the Foetus.t — Messrs. Beclere, 
Chambon, Menard, and Coulomb have made observations on 65 women 
and 65 newly born children as to the intra-uterine transmission of 
vaccinal immunity, and an anti-virulent potency in the blood-serum. 
They have been led to the following conclusions : — 
(1) Immunity, as regards vaccinal inoculation, has been observed 
only in those newly born children whose mothers were immune. 
(2) The intra-uterine transmission of vaccinal immunity was not 
observed in the case of all the women who were immune at the time of 
accouchement, but only in a small number. 
(3) The intra-uterine transmission of vaccinal immunity was observed 
only in those cases in which the blood, anti-virulent as regards vaccine, 
had transferred through the placenta its anti-virulent properties to the 
blood of the foetus. 
(4) The intra-uterine transmission of vaccinal immunity may be 
observed in mothers with anti-virulent serum who have been vaccinated 
during or before pregnancy, and even if the vaccination was in child- 
hood. 
(5) On the other hand, the intra-uterine transmission of the vaccinal 
immunity is not observed in mothers with non-antivirulent serum who 
were vaccinated before or during pregnancy. 
(6) Therefore the passage of the anti-virulent substance from the 
maternal to the foetal blood through the placenta is the necessary con- 
dition of congenital immunity. 
(7) But this condition is not in itself sufficient ; among newly born 
children whose serum is shown to be anti-virulent it may still be pos- 
sible to inoculate with success. 
(8) Among newly born children whose serum is shown to be anti- 
virulent there are variations in the degree of anti-virulent potency in the 
serum, and this is an important factor in the success or non-success of 
* Coraptes Rendus, cxxix. (1899) pp. 231-3. f Tom. cit., pp. 235-7. 
