ANTIANAPHYLAXIS 141 
liberation of a non-specific poisonous product of protein degradation. 
Alderhalden^ and his associates claim to have demonstrated proteoly- 
tic enzymes in the blood stream. 
Friedberger- has shown that a poison may be obtained by incuba- 
ting the inactivated serum of a sensitized animal with an excess of 
complement and homologous (sensitizing) protein, which, when 
injected into guinea-pigs, elicits the symptoms of anaphylaxis. It 
is not a true toxin in the bacterial sense, for no antibody is produced 
in response to repeated, sublethal injections. It appears to differ 
from A\iughan's poison in that it is destroyed or inactivated at a tem- 
perature above 65° C. This poison so it is claimed, does not form if 
complement is not present in solution with the inactivated serum and 
antigen, which would suggest a resemblance to other cytolytic reactions 
in which the specific amboceptor is activated by complement. Appar- 
ently, according to this theory, the poison is not a fixed, definite entity 
common to all, or at least a majority of proteins. Different sera and 
antigens produce different poisons. Xovy and DeKruif,'' however, 
in their extensive series of studies showed that anaphylatoxin may be 
produced by the addition of almost any alien substance to a serum: 
bacteria, organ cells, organ extracts, peptone, agar, starch, various 
salts, and even distilled water act as inducers or accelerators of this 
reaction. In specific anaphylaxis, however, the inducing substance is 
formed by the interaction of the antigen with its antibody. 
The essential distinction between the theories of Vaughan and of 
Friedberger appears to rest upon the nature of the poisonous substance 
liberated during the reaction. Vaughan maintains that the phe- 
nomena of the anaphylactic reaction are due to the poisonous sub- 
stance, archon or nucleus, common to all proteins, which is identical 
with, or similar in its action to beta-imidazolethylamine. The speci- 
ficity of the process, according to this view, resides in the specificity 
of the parenterally developed enzyme which cleaves only the homol- 
ogous protein, and from which it liberates the poisonous substance. 
Friedberger's theory, which was developed somewhat later than 
Vaughan's first work, appears to depend upon a reaction between 
immune body antigen and complement— to use Fhrlich's terminology— 
with a formation of poisonous substance, not necessarily the same for 
different antigens. In this connection, both Friedemann"* and Kam- 
mann^ have found that a substance may be formed by the interaction 
of antibody and antigen in vitro which will produce symptoms of 
anaphylaxis in normal guinea-pigs. The observation of Sleeswijk'' 
1 Ztschr. f. physiol. Chem., 1912, 82, 109; Abwehrfermente des tierischen Organismus, 
Berlin, 191.3. 
' Ztschr. f. Immunitatsforsch., 1909, 4, 636; 1910, 7, 94. Ueber Anaphjdaxie, Ibid., 
orig., 1911, 9, .369 (in collaboration with Goldschmidt, Schmanowsky, Schiiltze, and 
Nathan). 
' Jour. Am. Med. As.sn., 1917, 68, 1524, for summary. Details in Jour. Inf. Dis., 
1917, 20, 499. 776. 
" Ztschr. f. Immunitatsforsch., 1909, 2, 591. ^ Ibid., 1911, 11, 6.59, 
6 Ibid., 1909, 2, 133. 
