Abstract
1. Methods have been developed and described for determining the susceptibility of the skin to dichlorethylsulphide.
2. Tremendous differences in sensitivity are found. One man may be about 600 times as sensitive as another.
3. A large group of white men tested showed about two to three per cent of hypersensitive men and 20 to 40 per cent of resistant men.
4. Negroes as a race are much more resistant than white men.
5. Sweating and moisture increase the sensitivity of the skin.
6. Men may become more sensitive from continued exposure to the gas, and especially when severely burned.
7. An atypical reaction is described in a man who became more sensitive from continued working with the substance; this appears to be of anaphylactic nature.
8. The skins of ordinary laboratory animals have been tested, and the monkey and guinea-pig appear the most resistant, while the horse appears to be most sensitive.
9. A tentative partial explanation for differences in susceptibility has been offered.
Footnotes
- Received December 13, 1918.
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