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Anaphylaxis
It is not without emotion that I address this assembly on
the experiments that have brought me, through the most
gracious favour of the Caroline Institute, the highest
reward that a scientist has the right to hope for. I ask your
indulgence in speaking of my own research, as I must do,
and in setting out the findings that have given anaphylaxis
a leading place in general pathology over the last decade.
First I feel I must explain and indeed justify the use of the
word itself, for it may seem somewhat barbarous at first
glance. This neologism I invented twelve years ago on the
assumption, which I think is still valid, that a new idea calls
for a new word in the name of scientific precision of
language.
Phylaxis, a word seldom used, stands in the Greek for
protection. Anaphylaxis will thus stand for the opposite.
Anaphylaxis, from its Greek etymological source, therefore
means that state of an organism in which it is rendered
hypersensitive, instead of being protected.
To make this plain, we will consider the example of a
subject that has received a poison.
Let us suppose the dosage to be moderate and that after
a few days the subject is, or at least appears to be,
normal. If, at this point, a further injection is given of the
same dosage of the same poison, what will happen?
There are three possibilities.