Abstract
These observations supplement our previous articles on serum digestive processes. All the reactions were obtained by the kymograph, the pressure in the carotid of the normal dog being recorded with a mercury manometer. The injections were made into the femoral vein. The normal sera (horse and rabbit) give a slight rise, whether freshly drawn or after standing for some weeks as far as we have observed.
The whole serum of a horse which had been injected with 800 c.c. of strong diphtheria toxin gave no reaction with the serum drawn the first three days after the injection. The serum of the 4th, 5th, and 6th day each gave depressions, when given in 8 c.c. volumes.
Another series of sera from the same horse, bled 6 weeks later gave well-marked depressions, with the sera drawn on the 3d, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th day after the toxin injection.
Several specimens of refined antidiphtheria sera, some of which had given rise to rashes in humans, gave well-marked depressions.
These depressions are not caused by the injection of minute quantities of ammonium sulphate per se. A recent, whole, antipneumococcus serum, which produced rashes in humans, gave in a young dog well-marked depressions and after the total injection of 35 C.C. given in 7 C.C. volumes, there was a rise, 13 minutes after which the dog died. This depressor substance practically disappeared after four days standing in the ice-box.
We have noticed a similar rise after the injection of numerous 6 C.C. doses of beef extracts, each of which had produced marked depressions; we have however been unable to kill a dog with these injections. These observations would seem to indicate that the amount of depression per se within moderate limitations is not so important as the recoil or loss of recoil.
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