RECENT INVESTIGATIONS ON ANTIBODIES

The nature and formation of antibodies constitute a fundamental aspect of immunology. Under the leadership of Belák of Budapest, numerous studies of the relationship of neurologic integration to antibody production have been carried on at the Institute for General Pathology.¹ There it has been shown that stimulation of the parasympathetic by therapeutic doses of pilocarpine increased the titer of specific agglutinins in vaccine therapy. Therapeutic doses of thyroxine or epinephrine, on the other hand, reduced such specific agglutinins.

Illényi and Borsak² of Budapest have recently suggested the plausible hypothesis that the antibody titer is a function of the vegetative nervous system. This hypothesis is an outgrowth of the attack on the theory of preformed antibodies and the championing of the belief that antibodies are new chemical products synthesized by the combined action of reticulo-endothelial cells and other tissues of internal secretion. Under the latter theory widely separated immunogenic