Idiosyncrasies / by Sir Humphry Rolleston.

  • Humphry Rolleston
Date:
1927
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Idiosyncrasies / by Sir Humphry Rolleston. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    47/128 page 43
    cent, of the white population in America have some form of inborn hypersensitive¬ ness, 3.5 per cent, being in the form of hay fever or asthma. The adjective atopic (aroTTia = strangeness, extra¬ ordinary nature) has been applied by Coca and Cooke to hypersensitiveness in man due to hereditary or familial influence and characterized by the constant presence in the blood of specifically reacting substances, discovered by Praunitz and Kustner, called “ atopic reagins ” which are primarily responsible for the manifestations of hypersensitiveness. Thus when the blood of an atopic person is injected into the skin of a normal person, that area, but not the rest, of the body becomes sensitive to the at opens or substances, such as foods or pollens, which give a positive reaction in the atopic donor. In this way the atopic nature of a case of hypersensitiveness can be decided. The relation of status lymphaticus to asthma, the association of which has been noted by Alexander and Paddock1 1 Alexander and Paddock, Arch. Int. Med., Chicago, 1921, xxvii, 184.
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3