Abstract
A case of meningococcus meningitis received 95 cubic centimeters of therapeutic serum derived from an immunized horse, intraspinally. On the eighth day, the patient developed serum sickness, characterized by fever and a rash. These symptoms lasted one week. On the day following the subsidence of the serum sickness, blood was taken from this patient. This blood was shown to contain both antibody to horse serum, and remnants of horse serum itself, by the following procedures:
(a) Antibody to horse serum was demonstrated through the fact that the patient's serum passively sensitized guinea-pigs against horse serum, in amounts of 0.15 c.c.
(b) Horse serum was demonstrated through the fact that the patient's serum produced a sharp anaphylactic response in guinea-pigs passively sensitized against horse serum by the previous injection of the serum of a rabbit immunized against horse serum. This result is not produced by control human sera.
A second aspiration of this patient's blood made after the lapse of another week failed to demonstrate the presence of antibody; and of horse serum in very small amounts.
These results show that antigen persists in the human being after the serum sickness has subsided, This fact is in harmony with animal experiments. They show that anaphylactic antibody is formed as a feature of serum sickness.
The coexistence of these factors in guinea-pigs similarly treated, I have demonstrated in previous experiments. Neither factor had as yet been demonstrated in human serum sickness. The facts indicate that the disease is due to the interaction of these factors, in accordance with an hypothesis suggested by Pirquet.
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