Studies in Hypersensitiveness

[摘要] The nature of the protective effect of the injection of pollen extracts in hay fever subjects is still unknown.This mode of treatment of hay fever was introduced in medical practice after hay fever was recognized as a condition of hypersensitiveness, and it was looked upon as a procedure analagous in its operation to that of desensitization in anaphylaxis. However, recent studies from this department have shown that the prophylactic effect of the treatment is not due to a neutralization of the substances which appear to be responsible for the state of hypersensitiveness, because, at the end of a successful course of treatment, these substances (the atopic reagins) are not diminished in the blood and, in fact, they are sometimes increased.These unexpected findings removed from consideration the only explanation of the phenomenon of protection that was compatible with our knowledge of the hypersensitive state and with the assumption that the protective effect of the injections is a specific one.

[学科分类] 生物科学（综合）