Phytopharmacological Reactions of Blood Serum from Leprosy,Tuberculosis and Syphilis.

The author has called attention to the fact that by means of living plant-physiological test objects various toxins could be detected in the human blood which cannot be demonstrated by zoopharmacological methods. A marked toxicity was noted by Macht and Lubin in the blood of women at the beginning of the menstrual period. 1 Macht has demonstrated the presence of a toxin in the blood of pernicious anemia patients, 2 which led to useful clinical applications in respect to differential diagnosis and evaluation of therapeutic procedures. 3 The author, in collaboration with Pels, has shown also a toxin to be present in the blood serum and in the contents of the vesicles of patients suffering from pemphigus. 4 In the present communication, the results of an extensive study of a series of blood sera from patients suffering with tuberculosis, syphilis and leprosy, respectively, are reported.

A series of blood specimens from tuberculous patients were obtained, partly from the Tuberculosis Clinic of the Johns Hopkins Hospital and partly from the Maryland Tuberculosis Sanatorium. A phytopharmacological examination of these sera in respect to their effect on the growth of Lupinus albus in Shive solution, according to the usual procedure employed by the author, revealed an average phytotoxic index of 78%, which is slightly higher than that of normal human blood serum.

A series of positive syphilitic sera, showing (+++) Wassermann reaction, obtained from the Wassermann Clinic of the Johns Hopkins Hospital, gave an average phytotoxic index for syphilis of 81%. This is definitely higher than the normal phytotoxic index for human blood serum.

The author has had an opportunity of studying a series of blood serum specimens from cases of leprosy. Some of these were obtained from the National Leprosariurn, Carville, Louisiana, and others from the School of Tropical Medicine, Calcutta, India, through the courtesy of Prof. R. N. Chopra.