Anaphylaxis

Liverpool: The University Press, 1913. First English edition.

1913 FIRST ENGLISH EDITION OF RICHET'S MONOGRAPH ON ANAPHYLAXIS, FOR WHICH HE WON THE NOBEL PRIZE THE SAME YEAR.

7 1/2 inches tall hardcover, red cloth binding, gilt title to cover and spine, xii, 266 pp. Small circular sticker to upper left corner of cover, spine ends frayed, institutional library handstamp to front flyleaf and title page, Wellcome Institute stamp to verso of title page with "withdrawn" cancel, binding tight, text pages unmarked and crisp, very good minus in custom archival mylar cover.

PREFACE: "In the progress and development of the Science and Art of Medicine, and of the kindred Pursuits of physiology and Pathology, successive investigators find themselves confronted with facts and with difficulties of which their predecessors were unaware, or whose significance and importance they overlooked. The more closely the phenomena of life, whether in health or disease, are examined, the more complex they are found to be; the attempt to solve the problem of yesterday has ended in the statement of the problem of today. ... The present work is a clear and able exposition of certain striking, often alarming, phenomena which, in the opinion of the author and of others who have worked on similar lines, may be expected to follow the introduction into the organism, at long intervals, of successive doses of albuminous substances such as are employed in some of the modern methods of treatment already referred to. To what extent, if at all, they constitute a real danger in the employment of such medication no definite opinion is generally held; that they may constitute a danger is a possibility that is deserving of serious consideration; but, on the other hand, if they do there is no valid reason to doubt that the danger depends on some contingent element in the method, and that means will be found to eliminate it without impairing the efficacy of the remedy. ... Dr. J. Murray Bligh has made a special study of the question of anaphylaxis, he has made himself fully acquainted with the views of Professor Richet on the subject, and he has performed numerous experiments with a view to making himself familiar with the phenomena in question. He has therefore undertaken the task of translating Professor Richet's work on Anaphylaxis into English, he has accomplished it with great success, and he offers it to the members of the medical profession in English-speaking countries in the hope that it will be effectual in bringing more closely to their notice the important and fascinating subject with which it deals."--THOMAS ROBERT BRADSHAW. Liverpool, March 1913.

CHARLES ROBERT RICHET (1850 - 1935) was a French physiologist at the Collège de France known for his pioneering work in immunology. In 1913, he won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "in recognition of his work on anaphylaxis". Richet spent a period of time as an intern at the Salpêtrière hospital in Paris, where he observed Jean-Martin Charcot's work with then so called "hysterical" patients. In 1887, Richet became professor of physiology at the Collège de France investigating a variety of subjects such as neurochemistry, digestion, thermoregulation in homeothermic animals, and breathing. In 1898, he became a member of the Académie de Médecine. In 1913, his work with Paul Portier on anaphylaxis the term he coined for a sensitized individual's sometimes lethal reaction to a second, small-dose injection of an antigen won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. The research helped elucidate hay fever, asthma and other allergic reactions to foreign substances and explained some previously not understood cases of intoxication and sudden death. In 1914, he became a member of the Académie des Sciences.

J. MURRAY BLIGH (1879-1968) was a house surgeon at the Liverpool Royal Infirmary in 1905 and later held junior posts at the Northern Hospital and the Infirmary for Children. He was Holt Fellow in Pathology at the University in 1906 and Thelwall Thomas Fellow in Surgical Pathology in 1908. In 1913 he was awarded the J.W. Garrett International Fellowship in Bacteriology. His writings at this time included papers on mongolism and the bacteriological diagnosis of typhoid, and he made an authorized translation from the French of Professor C. Richet's monograph on Anaphylaxis.

See GARRISON-MORTON No. 2599. De l'anaphylaxie en général et de l'anaphylaxie par la mytilocongestine en particulier. Ann. Inst. Pasteur, 21, 497-524; 22, 465-95, 1907, 1908.