Fatal anaphylactic shock can be produced by the reaction between widely differing amounts of antigen and antibody. It may be assumed that the lethal effect is the same whatever the extent of the reaction beyond a necessary minimum of antigen and antibody. Most poisons act in a similar way: they produce the same lethal effect, whether the minimum lethal dose is used or multiples of it. If their lethal effect is to be counteracted by an antidote, the dose of the antidote must be varied according to that of the poison. A dose counteracting the minimum lethal dose could not be expected to prevent death from double the lethal dose. Such a relationship between poison and antidote may also be suspected for anaphylactic shock, whatever its mechanism. If the reaction of antigen and antibody produces a substance or substances causing the shock, the amount of these substances will vary with the number of antigen and antibody units involved. We should expect that the dosage of a counteracting or protecting substance must also vary accordingly. It follows that experiments which end in lethal anaphylactic shock have little quantitative meaning, as the lethal shock may be produced by widely differing amounts of shock-causing agent.As Kabat & Landow (1942) have shown, it is possible to produce mild anaphylactic shock by reducing the amounts of antigen used. Humphrey (1951) has tried to distinguish degrees of non-lethal shock according to the severity of the symptoms. The method described here goes further and consists in the production of non-lethal shock of a definite intensity. It is assumed that shocks of the same intensity are induced by an approximately constant amount of antigen-antibody reaction. Protective drugs can therefore be tested quantitatively.
METHODIn order to prevent a lethal effect the shock substance is introduced as an aerosol. Guinea-pigs are injected intramuscularly 21 days beforehand with 07 ml. of a 5 % solution of crystalline egg albumin. The exposure to aerosol of
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