I. 
MATERNAL TRANSMISSION OF IMMUNITY TO DIPHTHERIA 
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By John F. Anderson, 
. 
Passed Assistant Surgeon , Assistant Director Hygienic Laboratory , U. S. Public Health 
and Marine- Hospital Service. 
When the Hygienic Laboratory undertook the work of preparing a 
standard unit for the measurement of antidiphtheric serum, one of the 
first necessities was a constant and reliable supply of guinea pigs 
weighing from 250 to 280 grams. It was estimated that 500 females 
in the breeding pens would insure a sufficient number for this, as well 
as for the other work of the laboratory. It occurred to me that per- 
haps we might use as breeders the pigs that had been used for the 
testing of antitoxin or determining the strength of diphtheria toxine 
and had fully recovered. Before placing such pigs in the breeding 
pens I thought it would be well first to test the young of a number of 
such used and recovered pigs to see if they were resistant to the action 
of diphtheria toxine. For this purpose 21 pigs were placed aside and 
their young tested either by the giving of a MLD or L+ dose, con- 
trol pigs being' used in every case from the stock pigs whose mothers 
had previously had no treatment. All of the animals were under 
exactly the same conditions as regards food, temperature, air, light, 
etc., both before and after testing. , 
The determination of this question is of a threefold importance: 
First. We know from work by Rosenau and Anderson® that there is 
a hypersusceptibility to the injection of horse serum, normal or anti- 
toxic, transmitted by a mother pig which has had a toxine-antitoxin 
mixture or serum alone to her young. It is, therefore, manifest that 
young pigs from such mothers should not be injected with serum for 
the purpose of determining the absence of bacterial contamination. 
In this test it is usual to inject several cubic centimeters of the serum 
a Rosenau, M. J., and John F. Anderson: A study of the cause of sudden death 
following the injection of horse serum. Hygienic Laboratory Bulletin No. 29, U. S. 
Public Health and Marine- Hospital Service. Washington, 1906. 95 p. 8°. 
Manuscript submitted for publication June 26, 1906. 
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