Allergenic Property of Scarlatinal Toxin

That scarlet fever is an allergic response of some individuals to streptococcus infection has been the opinion of a number of investigators (Dochez and Stevens, 1927; van Szontagh, 1922; Meyer, 1923; de Biehler, 1938). Some have felt that scarlatinal toxin elaborated by certain strains of hemolytic streptococci grown in liquid medium can induce heightened sensitivity when the filtrates of this culture are injected into susceptible animals (Dochez and Sherman, 1925; Brokman and Lacka, 1933). However, the observed sensitivity could not be as-cribed with certainty to this toxin since the streptococcus culture filtrates con-tain many substances of bacterial origin other than the toxin, as well as sub-stances from the medium capable of sensitizing susceptible aimals. During the course of study of the nature of the purified scarlatinal toxin, we observed the heightened skin reactivity of rabbits to repeated injections of this substance. Since we were in possession of some purified preparations from various sources, as well as our own scarlatinal toxin prepared by the method described later, this sensitivity was further investigated and the following is the report of the studies.