Abstract
The phenomenon of local skin reactivity to bacterial filtrates described by one of us (Shwartzman 1 ) was later also reproduced in the liver, kidney (Shwartzman 2 ), testis, intestines, lymphatic glands, lungs, thymus, guinea pig liposarcoma (Gratia and Linz 3 ), stomach (Karsner, Ecker and Jackson 4 ), and knee joints (Moritz and Morley 5 ). It was elicited with a great variety of microorganisms (Shwartzman 6 ) and also with vaccine virus as the preparatory factor (Gratia and Linz 3 ). The animals in which the phenomenon was observed were rabbits (Shwartzman 1 ), horses, goats (Shwartzman 8 ), and guinea pigs (Gratia and Linz 3 ). It could not be reproduced in mice and rats (Shwartzman 7 ). Assuming that malignant tumors may be of parasitic etiology, Gratia and Linz 3 thought that the hypothetical virus should then be capable of inducing a state of reactivity in the tumor tissue and thus render it susceptible to reacting factors in the blood stream. Five guinea pigs bearing liposarcoma were injected intravenously with B. coli culture filtrate. Two guinea pigs which died 24 hours later and 2 killed 48 hours later showed at autopsy hemorrhagic lesions in the tumor tissue and no lesions in other organs. The fifth guinea pig was left alive for further observations. They selected guinea pigs because of their susceptibility to the phenomenon of local reactivity to bacterial filtrates.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.