ANTI ANAPHYLAXIS 139 
according to Auer and Lewis/ and, in guinea-pigs at least, death is 
due to suffocation of the animal, caused by contraction of the bron- 
chioles. (See also Biedl and Kraus.'-^) 
It has been found that smooth muscle as uterus, or strips of small 
intestine derived from sensitized animals, undergoes forceful contrac- 
tion when exposed to the homologous protein (Schultz^). This 
phenomenon will take place even in muscles freed from blood and 
lymph by careful washing. 
This observation, and the experiments of Pearce and Eisenbrey,^ 
of Weil,'^ Dale,'' Schultz,^ and others, seem to indicate that the reac- 
tion occurs within the cells of the body rather than in the blood steam. 
The urine of anaphylactic animals is toxic, and 2 cc. is frequently 
sufficient to kill guinea-pigs with anaphylactic symptoms, according 
to observations by Pfeift'er.^ 
Anaphylaxis may be defined, therefore, as a congenital or acquired 
condition of cellular hypersensitiveness in man or animals to the 
parenteral introduction of proteins, w^hich is incited experimentally 
by one or more injections of unaltered bacteria, plant, animal or human 
protein. Active acquired hypersensitiveness can be transmitted to 
non-sensitized individuals by the injection of the serum of an anaphy- 
lacticized or an immune individual, inducing in the recipient of the 
serum a condition of passive anaphylaxis. Anaphylaxis, therefore, 
belongs to the group of immunological reactions. 
Theories.— Vaughan^ has shown that all proteins may be split into 
two fractions if they are heated with 2 per cent potassium hydroxide 
in absolute alcohol; one portion, soluble in alcohol, when injected 
into animals, gives symptoms indistinguishable from those of ana- 
phylaxis, irrespective of the protein. It is important to realize that 
this cleavage takes place in the absence of OH and H ions. The 
alcohol-insoluble fraction is not toxic. The alcohol-soluble fraction 
obtained from various animal, vegetable, and bacterial proteins always 
reacts the same, not only symptomatically, but quantitatively as well. 
His theory is that the protein molecule consists of two parts: An 
archon or nucleus, which is poisonous and elicits the symptoms of 
anaphylaxis when it is injected parenterally into animals, and common 
to all proteins; and additional groups which are non-poisonous but 
confer upon a protein by their number and arrangement, its specificity. 
Normal gastro-intestinal digestion proceeds in such a manner that the 
poisonous archon is not liberated in significant amounts, or probably 
not at all. In this respect, normal digestion differs from parenteral 
1 Jour. Exp. Med., 1910, 12, 151. 
2 Wien. klin. Wchnschr., 1910, 23, 385. 
3 Bull. No. 80, 1912, U. S. Public Health and Marine-Hospital Service. 
4 Jour. Infec. Dis., 1910, 7, 565. 
5 Jour. Med. Res., 191.3, 27, 497; 1914, 30, 87, 299; 1915, 32, 107. 
= Jour. Pharmacol, and Exp. Ther., 1913, 4, 517. 
' Loc. cit. 
s Ztschr. f. Immunitatsforsch., orig., 1911, 11, 550. 
» Protein Split Products, 1913, for full discussion. 
