Word: allergen
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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...Latest theory of the complicated workings of allergic reaction: An allergen enters the bloodstream. If there are specific antibodies already present in the blood, the allergen is "conquered" and no symptoms result. But if the body is taken unawares, and antibodies are resting in tissue cells, a terrific battle follows. The offending allergen may be "neutralized," but only with great damage to tissue cells. As the cells are torn, large quantities of the chemical histamine escape into the bloodstream, cause "certain organic reactions ... in the walls of the blood vessels and in the smooth muscles...
...Standard rule in allergy therapy: "Free the patient of exposure, if possible. If not, make him capable of sustaining it." Standard procedure consists of: 1) skin and diet tests to detect the offending substances; 2) injections or feeding of minute quantities of the allergen until immunity is produced. This procedure takes many weary months, often years, has brought a good percentage of successful results with victims of every kind of allergy-from canteloupe to horsehair...
...most common medical procedures today is the skin test by means of which doctors tell whether a person is sensitive to ragweed, strawberries, horsehair, chicken feathers, scarlet fever, diphtheria or any other known allergen. The physician scrapes off a tiny area of the patient's skin, applies a drop or two of the allergic substance, covers the whole with a piece of adhesive plaster. Skin tests have preserved the health and lives of multitudes. They have also" served to reveal that about 1% of the population develops an eczema-like skin irritation solely from the adhesive tape used...