On Staphylococcal Precipitin Reactions in Cases of Acute and Chronic Infections and also in Serum Sickness

Abstract

This work was undertaken for the purpose of determining the occurrence and specificity of bacterial precipitins in infections caused by the Staphylococcus aureus. The differences in antigenic properties of various strains of orange and white staphylococci employed in the preparation of the filtered antigens and the importance of the presence of peptone in this connection led to numerous experimental observations which had not been anticipated. The presence of strong S. aureus precipitins in the blood of an adult suffering from very acute serum sickness following an injection of anti-diphtheritic serum led to an investigation of the blood of patients suffering from serum sickness, the results of which are fully recorded here. The investigation of the blood of normal rabbits revealed the fact that in some of these animals staphylococcal precipitins were present, which led to unexpected difficulties in the study of precipitins in the actively immunised animal.