Age and the Susceptibility of Rabbits to Scarlet Fever Toxin

[摘要] A relation between age and susceptibility to scarlet fever toxin was described by Parish and Okell (1). They found that young rabbits survived longer than mature ones following the inoculation of living scarlatinal streptococci and also that doses of scarlatinal toxin which were fatal to most rabbits of more than 2000 grams were not fatal to most rabbits weighing less than 1000 grams. Although, in the experiments with toxin, the ages of the animals were unknown, nevertheless, considering the weights mentioned there can be no doubt but that these investigators observed a lack of susceptibility to scarlatinal toxin in young as compared to older rabbits. This phenomenon was noted by us independently while studying another phase of the scarlet fever problem. It seems worth while to publish our results for their corroborative value. Accordingly our experiments which have to do with the relation of age and susceptibility follow.

[学科分类] 生物科学（综合）