coming into contact with them, become moreor less immunized to the majority. Only occasionally a case of violentsensitivity came to light and was recognized as such. Two or three casesthere had been which the old scientist discovered while searching thearchives of ancient medicine and these gave him the clew he needed.
One was the case of a little girl who had somehow or other becomesensitized to the protein of wasp toxin and who suffered almostimmediate death from anaphylactic "choc" as the result of being stung bythat insect. A second instance concerned a woman who went into violentasthmatic paroxysms if a mouse entered the room where she was, and whoseskin broke out into large wheals if touched with mouse hair. Finally,and most outstanding in his mind, was the case of a child who wasthought to be sensitive to the fish protein in glue and who died almostimmediately when the physician testing her had brought a small quantityof the dry protein into contact with a scratch on her arm.
These had, however, been rare cases, but they pointed out the method. Ithad already been proved over and over again that animals could besensitized experimentally by treating them with foreign proteins,provided that after the initial dose they did not come into contact withthe same protein until after a lapse of about two weeks. If theyhappened to do so the first injection or treatment was frequentlyneutralized and failed to give the desired sensitivity.
With the discovery of a new, highly pure and synthetic protein by Dr.Rutledge the situation with the enemy could be put on a close parallelwith the laboratory condition. The enemy could be fed the protein whenthey were in need of food and had little else, but since it wassynthetic, they could not get a second supply until the Doctor was ableto put the fatal meal in their way.
THE END
Transcriber's Note:
This etext was produced from _Amazing Stories_ April 1956 and was first published in _Amazing Stories_ January 1930. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and typographical errors have been corrected without note. Subscript characters are shown within {braces}.
The Sword and the Atopen Page 3
