1. The symptoms and autopsy findings in guinea-pigs following intravenous injection of antisera prepared against guinea-pig serum or serum fractions are described. Two types of reaction were observed, acute and delayed, similar to those described in direct anaphylaxis.

2. The alterations in systemic blood pressure, pulmonary arterial pressure, and bronchial resistance, were investigated and found to simulate closely those observable in ordinary anaphylactic shock.

3. The antisera have the power of stimulating contraction of the isolated uterus of the guinea-pig, either in the presence or absence of excess guinea-pig serum. The reaction, like that observed in direct anaphylaxis, is therefore cellular.

4. Antisera prepared against guinea-pig serum proteins contain, in addition to precipitins, agglutinins for the red cells of that species, and Forssmann antibody. Neither of the last two antibodies, however, is responsible for the shock phenomena here described. It appears that the potency of a serum to produce shock in guinea-pigs is dependent on several factors, of which the most important is the content in precipitins reacting with the guinea-pig serum proteins. These precipitins give rise to the reactions following intravenous injection into guinea-pigs, not merely as a result of humoral combination with homologous antigens, but largely, if not wholly, as the result of an immune reaction with antigens in the protoplasm of the tissue cells.

A fresh examination has been made of data obtained some years ago when observations were made of the relation between subjective impressions of freshness and the temperature, velocity and humidity of the air. The results are described, and the bearing of certain other factors on freshness impressions is also discussed. The requirements for a pleasant and invigorating atmosphere are stated.

1. The effects of morphine, heroin, codeine, dilaudid, dicodid and eukadol upon the caecum and colon are described.

2. Small quantities of morphine produce a rapid increase in tone and amplitude of movements lasting many hours. Large doses result in a spastic contraction of the intestine with diminution of peristaltic movements.

3. The effects of heroin closely resemble those of morphine; it usually produces a greater increase in tone than morphine but the movements are not so great. Heroin is about 30% more active than morphine.

4. Codeine appears to be the weakest member of the series. It causes a slight increase in tone and peristaltic movements which never last very long.

5. Dilaudid produces effects which closely resemble those of morphine and heroin but it is approximately 7.5 times more potent than morphine. Intestinal tone is increased at first but may be subnormal at the 3 or 4 hr. stage. The maximum amplitude of peristaltic movements is seen at the 3 hr. stage.

6. Dicodid increases the tone, and particularly the peristaltic movements. The effects upon the general tone are moderate, much less than those of morphine, heroin or dilaudid. The increase in the amplitude of the movements is, however, much greater than with any other of the drugs. It differs from the others in producing its effects only after a long latent interval of 1–2 hr.

7. Eukadol increases the peristaltic movements in a marked way and is more active in this respect than either morphine or heroin, but is inferior to dicodid. Its effects upon tone are very transient and never very marked.

8. The effects of all these drugs upon the tone and peristaltic movements are at once abolished by adrenalin or atropine. Except morphine and eukadol, these drugs failed to produce their effects when administered after full doses of atropine.

9. The injection of hypophysin during the phase of increased muscular activity following the injection of these drugs, always causes an immediate abolition or diminution of the peristaltic movements and loss of tone to a subnormal level. There is however a rapid recovery from this state and approximately 5–10 min. later the movements are increased to an amplitude far in excess of that seen perior to the injection of hypophysin.

1. A new test for the stability of emulsions of oils or fats is described. It is based on the observation that, when stable emulsions of oils and fats in a fine state of division are mixed with lethal quantities of bacterial toxins and incubated for 30 min. at body temperature, and the mixtures when injected into guinea-pigs do not cause death.

2. Emulsions of olive oil (50%) made with either egg yolk or Irish moss do not protect animals against the effects of lethal doses of bacterial toxins, and are therefore regarded as unstable as judged by this standard.

An investigation of enterococci from human and bovine sources by the method of Lancefield (1933) shows that they possess a specific antigen by which the enterococcus group can be defined.

The validity of this method as a means of differentiating the enterococcus from other groups of streptococci is confirmed by the biochemical and other properties, such as the association of mannitol fermentation with heat resistance of the starins used, which already differentiate the group in some degree. The tests for susceptibility to lysis by bacteriophages, carried out during the present investigation, are also confirmatory of the results obtained by the precipitin method.

As the specific antigen characteristic of enterococci cannot be demonstrated in strains representative of groups A, B, C, (Lancefield, 1933) and Str. lactis (Lister, 1873) it is concluded that these are unrelated to the enterococcus.

A number of other streptococci, however, including Str. zymogenes (MacCallum & Hastings, 1899), Str. liquefaciens (Orla-Jensen, 1919), and group D haemolytic streptococcus (Lancefield, 1933) have been shown to possess an antigen in common with the enterococcus, as well as the other properties of enterococci, including susceptibility to lysis by bacteriophages; these are usually considered as distinct species, but reasons are advanced in the present communication for regarding them as varieties of enterococci.

The name group D haemolytic streptococcus of Lancefield, is unnecessary and may give rise to confusion. As an enterococcus, it possesses no characteristic antigenic, or haemolytic or other property which differentiates it from the zymogenes or haemolyticus varieties of enterococci referred to in this communication.

The more important growth characters and fermentation and other properties of the enterococci, classifield by the precipitin method in this investigation, may be summarized as follows; ability to grow at 10 and at 45°C., in broth containing 6·5% NaCl, in broth of pH 9·6, to produce chains in pure bile, to produce a final pH in 1% glucose broth of 4–4·2, to reduce methyleneblue, and to ferment trehalose, sorbitol and salicin; but deficiency in one or more of these properties was occasionally noted.

1. Various workers in different countries claim that in the sera of trachoma patients a positive Weil-Felix reaction is found and regard this as evidence that the casual agent of trachoma is a Rickettsia.

2. The examination of 200 sera from trachoma patients in the Sudan has failed to reveal any significant differences with regard to the Weil-Felix reaction between them and twenty-two sera from non-trachomatous controls, or 1000 sera taken, without reference to trachoma, from a large and representative section of the population.

3. Clinical and serological evidence suggest that typhus is absent from the Sudan. For this reason the interpretation of results is less liable to confusion in the Sudan than in countries where positive Weil-Felix reactions may occur in a varying proportion of the population due to typhus infections.

Ten years ago the writer (Graham-Smith, 1929) called attention to the relation of the decline in the number of horse-drawn vehicles, and consequently of the urban breeding grounds of flies, to the fall in the death-rate from summer diarrhoea in children under one year of age.

A laboratory investigation of 776 cases of labor pneumonia, mainly among Kenya Africans, over a period of 5 years, revealed a remarkable preponderance of infections due to group IV pneumococci.

Comparison of the total case mortality rate with the case mortality of group IV pneumonia infections suggests that Kenya Africans are not specially susceptible to pneumonia, and that many of the group IV pneumococci which cause pneumonia in Kenya are of high virulence and penetrative power.

A considerable number of group IV pneumococcal types capable of causing severe lobar pneumonia were serologically isolated. A few of these were identified with pneumococcal types prevalent in New York and South Africa.

An experiment was made on a fairly large scale with prophylactic antipneumonia vaccine, made in the same way as Sir Spencer Lister's pneumonia prophylactic which is used with success in the Rand mines, but constituted of the pneumococcal types which had been found to be most prevalent in pneumonia in the Nairobi district. Extensive trials with this vaccine have been made on the labourers of the Kenya gold fields, and elsewhere, and very encouraging reports on the effects of this vaccine in reducing the incidence and case mortality of pneumonia have been received from medical officers who carried out the inoculations.

A technique is described for the use of surface culture suspensions of pneumococci for serological and bile-solubility tests, and advantages are claimed on specified grounds for the use of surface culture suspensions in preparing agglutinating and therapeutic pneumococcal sera.

A method is described for the use of formol-saline suspensions of surface cultures for preserving collections of pneumococcal types, and for correlating pneumococcal types prevalent in different countries.

Käber's method is, for many purposes, a sufficiently accurate way of determining the median effective dose, when we have a series of doses increasing in a constant ratio and a small number of animals on each. The standard error of the determination may also be rapidly found by a simple approximate method. Illustrative examples are given.

The standard error calculated by the approximate method is based on the assumption that the animals are homogeneous. It must be used with caution when any heterogeneity is suspected. With animals of similar heterogeneity to those used here, the differences between two different toxic-fractions should only be regarded as significant if they are from 3 to 3.5 times their standard errors so calculated.

1. A series of 340 cases of scarlet fever was treated under controlled conditions, (a) with sulphanilamide or benzyl-sulphanilamide, and (b) without sulphanilamide.

2. There was an even distribution of the individual cases in respect of factors known to influence the course of the disease, such as (a) the duration of the disease before admission to hospital, and (b) the severity of the infection.

3. Treatment was carried out during the whole period of 4 weeks, which constitutes the average period of hospitalization in scarlet fever.

4. The dose employed was large: (a) patients 5 years of age and over receiving 1 g. 4 hourly (i.e. 5 g. a day) for the first 14 days in hospital, thereafter 1 g. t.i.d. (i.e. 3 g. a day) for 14 days; a maximum total dose of 112 g., and (b) patients under 5 years of age receiving 0.5 g. 4 hourly (i.e. 2.5 g. a day) for the first 14 days in hospital, thereafter 0.5 g., t.i.d. (i.e. 1.5 g. a day) for 14 days; a maximum total dosage of 56 g.

5. The results show that sulphanilamide had no significant effect upon the initial symptoms of scarlet fever, or upon the kind, incidence, or duration of later complications.

6. A large number of toxic reactions followed the use of both sulphanilamide and benzyl-sulphanilamide.

7. In view of all the evidence submitted, it is considered that there is no justification for the employment of sulphanilamide and benzyl-sulphanilamide in the treatment of scarlet fever.