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In the course of this work an epidemic of infectious dysentery occurred in his mouse colony. He noted.that the alcohol-fed mice almost all died, while their normal controls remained healthy. He wondered whether the alco- holic mice were unable to make antibodies and therefore unable to protect themselves against infection. . . Using rabbits as subjects and alcohol dehydrogenase enzyme found in yeast as an antigen (a foreign substance against which the body must make anti- bodies to protect itself), he found that chronic alcohol intoxication did not affect the rabbit's ability to make antibodies. ⢠In working with this problem, however, he was able to demonstrate that the organism produced two types of antibodies instead of the single type heretofore described. His animals Initially produced antibodies which re- acted with the antigens to form single larger molecules, as would be expected. He detected, however, a second type of antibody which would be formed several days after the antigen was injected. This antibody would react to the antigen- antibody combinations described above to form a still larger molecule, but would not react to the original antigen by itself. This phenomenon may be related to the delayed symptoms appearing in certain diseases, and is a find- ing of considerable importance to the study of the processes of immunity and hypersensitivity. Dr. Najjar has therefore understandably shifted his in- terest from problems of alcohol to the field of immunology. H. OTHER RCPA PROJECTS ' \"' -'⢠Other projects in effect at the time of transfer of the research functions of the Research Council on Problems of Alcohol to the NRG in addition to the three described above included a three-year grant to Drs. M. R. Fields and J.'B. Nash of New York University School of Education to provide scholarships to a course on alcohol education and a single small grant to Dr. W. Voegtlin of the University of Washington School of Medicine to study the hypothesis that an allergy to alcohol existed in chronic alcoholics. The grant for alcohol education was productive of a number of unpublished student reports outlining techniques, methods, and course materials to be used in alcohol education. The course ran as a special course in the academic years 1949-1950 and 1950-1951. Twelve graduate students took the course the first year and thirteen the second. In the third year of the program only enough fellowship money was available to provide scholarships for four stu- dents. The material on alcohol education was therefore incorporated in a course, "Methods and Materials of Teaching for Health." Dr. Voegtlin1s work, supported only in part by RCPA funds, attempted to confirm studies suggesting that allergic reactions to alcohol could be pro- duced in experimental animals and that alcoholics would show, by skin tests, evidence of allergy to alcohol. Drs. Voegtlin and Robinson (32) were com- pletely unable to reproduce any of the results previously reported by either Loiseleur or Maniloff. They concluded that no allergy to ethyl alcohol (they used a highly purified alcohol prepared from sugar cane) could be produced in experimental animals or demonstrated in human alcoholics by the methods
