On the Classification of the Phenomena of Hypersensitiveness

Abstract

Abstract I. By Arthur F. Coca. Robert Doerr was the first to recognize the need of a classification of the phenomena of hypersensitiveness. In attempting such a classification Doerr (7), unfortunately chose as the main heading the term Allergie (allergy) which had been introduced by von Pirquet. This choice was particularly unhappy because Doerr felt obliged in using it to observe with some strictness the etymological significance of the term (altered reactivity). The result of this observance was the inclusion in Doerr's category of allergies of phenomena of such different nature as to make their association valueless if not positively confusing. There seems, for example, to be no advantage in associating in one category two so widely different phenomena as the well known morphine tolerance and morphine idiosyncrasy. Doerr's subdivision of “allergic” phenomena into those exhibited to non-antigenic substances and those exhibited to antigenic substances is also inadvisable because such subdivision necessitates a confusing separation of identical conditions of hypersensitiveness in human beings, merely in accordance with the presence or absence of antigenic property in the exciting agent.