( 784 ) 
Not long ago Tsurtjn 2 ) tried to reduce the signification of the 
alexine fixation in vivo in anaphylaxis. Thus already in normal 
guinea-pigs normal serum from dog or rabbit would cause loss of 
complement. This certainly does not hold good for horse serum, as 
had already appeared from my former controlling experiments; indeed, 
about this Tsurun does not speak. But moreover this investigator 
has worked with corpuscles sensitized not strongly enough and with 
insufficient dilutions of complement, so that his results do not deserve 
a very great confidence. Leaving this out of consideration, he found, 
just as I did before, that the intoxication-phenomena and the loss of 
complement need not run parallel, from which I drew the conclusion 
that these two are not directly dependent upon each other, but have 
a common cause. 
I now come to the third point that I wish to treat of here, viz. 
the application of anaphylaxis in the practice of medicina forensis. 
Evidently this application was so clear that about at the same time 
and independent of my communication, similar results were made 
known by Thomsen, Uhlenhuth, and H. Pfeiffer. The last lays stress 
upon the strong fall in the temperature of the body during the 
anaphylactic shock as a resource for the diagnosis. 
Concerning the technique of this investigation the following may 
still be mentioned. If a blood spot has to be identified, and if guinea- 
pigs are treated intraperitoneally, several cm 8 of serum are necessary 
for each animal that is to be examined. If the animals are treated 
intravenously (in the jugularis), much smaller quantities of serum are 
wanted, but then an operation in the neck has to take place, which, 
however, after some practice for this purpose offers no objection. It 
has now appeared to me that also with young rabbits of about 
1 K.Gr. the experiment can be very well made, because here both 
the sensitizing and the trying injection can be easily made in the 
earvena. A small dried up blood-spot is dissolved in 1 cin 8 . of 
physiological salt-solution and injected in such an animal; after a 
fortnight 1 cm 8 of the suspected kinds of blood is injected also 
intravenously. To rabbits, which had thus been previously treated 
with extracts from human blood-spots, I have administered on conse¬ 
cutive days serum from goat, horse, cow, and guinea-pig, without 
the animals reacting in the least. Lastly 1 cm* of human serum 
caused them within a few minutes to answer with spasms and 
paralyses, with respiratory disturbances, incontinentia urinae et alvi, 
etc. The anaphylactic reaction will, in my opinion, in the practice 
!) Zeitschr. f. Imm. forsch Bd. IV, H. 5. 
