On the influence of alcohol on immunity / by Taav. Laitinen.

  • Laitinen, Taavetti, 1866-
Date:
[1909?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: On the influence of alcohol on immunity / by Taav. Laitinen. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    weakens the normal resisting power of the body against the above-named disease-producing influences. In the hope of con¬ tributing something to the explanation of the way in which alcohol weakens the organism, I have made a number of experiments bearing upon the question of the influence of alcohol on immunity. Early in the present century careful experiments went to show that alcohol certainly had some influence upon immunity. Two Americans, Abbot and Bergey,* were the first to discover that this agent produces a diminution of the hsemolytic comple¬ ment in the blood-serum of certain animals which were tested. They showed also that the formation of specific hsemolytic receptors (immune bodies) may be retarded by the action of alcohol. G. Fraenkel,t however, asserts that both large and small quantities of alcohol exercise a definite stimulant action upon the formation of the immunizing bodies. R. TrcmmsdorfFJ has described a retarding influence exerted by alcohol upon the formation of agglutinins in guinea-pigs. Rubin § speaks of the negative action of alcohol upon phagocy¬ tosis in the case of staphylococcus, streptococcus, and pneumo¬ coccus. E. Stewart|| has noted the effects of alcohol upon the opsonic index for tubercle bacilli and also streptococci. Almost similar results have been obtained by F. Th. Muller,5 Friedberger,** and others in regard to the influence of alcohol on the protective qualities of the blood generally. In former comm unications tt I have shown that the power of resistance of the red blood-corpuscles, as well as, to some extent, the bacteriocidal power of the blood-serum, is lowered by alcohol. On the contrary, I. Leva,it* who, however, made comparatively few experiments, and these in a totally different manner from mine, could not find any influence upon the formation of anti-bodies by * Abbott and Bergey : University of Pennsylvania Medical Bulletin, 1902. f Fraenkel, C. : Berliner Klin. Wochenschrift, 1905, p. 53. | Trommsdorff, R. : Archiv fur Hygiene, Bd. LVIII. § Rubin, Journal A. M. A., vol. xlviii., No. 17, p. 1432. || Stewart, E. : American Journal of Inebriety, 1907. 5 Muller, P. T. : Wiener Klin. Wochenschrift, No. 77, 1904. ** Friedberger : Berliner Klin. Wochenschrift, 1904, p. 242. ft Laitinen, T. : “ Bericht iiber XL Internationale? Kongress gegen den Alcoholismus,” 1907 ; and Zeitschrift fur Hygiene, 1907. +1 Leva, J. : Medicinische Klinik, No. 16, 1907, p. 450.