Intracutaneous Vaccination of Rabbits with Pneumococcus. III. Hypersensitiveness.

Abstract

In the preceding communications, the intracutaneous vaccination of rabbits with Pneumococcus (S forms) has been shown to give rise chiefly to the formation of the antiprotein rather than the type specific antibodies, and to the development of an increased resistance to infection with organisms of homologous and heterologous types. The present paper describes briefly the development of an altered tissue reaction to Pneumococcus and its protein derivatives in rabbits which have been inoculated repeatedly into the skin with heat killed suspensions of R and S pneumococci.Mackenzie and Woo1 have shown that guinea pigs, injected intracutaneously with an alkaline extract of Pneumococcus, develop an allergic reaction in the skin to the bacterial protein; Zinsser and Grinnell2 have produced allergic sensitization to pneumococcus autolysates in guinea pigs previously injected intradermally or intraperitoneally with the same material. Bull and McKee3 have recently shown that rabbits, after recovery from infection in...