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cyclophosphamide, depressed, but did not abolish, the appearance of agglutinating antibody when infected animals were subjected to Priore irradiation, although relapse occurred after about 12 days. Newborn animals died of the infection whether irradiated or not, and the organisms found in their blood were of the original strain. Trypanosomal antigen of unspecified nature, injected intraperitoneally after the first irradiation of infected animals, caused an enhancement of anti-body production. When the parasites were protected from the host's immune system by being implanted in a diffusion chamber, Priore irradiation failed to inhibit their multiplication.  In his talk, Pautrizel said that in order to elucidate further the apparent effect of irradiation in exalting the mobilization of the immune system, the course of change of immunoglobulins M and G, of albumin/globulin ratio, and of agglutinating and hemagglutinating titers was followed in irradiated and reinfected animals for about one year. The data were given in detail. With no time in which to understand, much less to assimilate them, I was left only with the impression that a clear picture has yet to emerge—a conclusion apparently shared by Prof. Czersky of Warsaw.  One point of interest was the passing mention of a failure to modify the course of a malarial infection. This is not surprising, perhaps, remembering the vastly more complex life cycle of the plasmodium and its greater antigenic variability.

          The postulated general stimulation of "defense mechanisms" by the output of the Priore machine led Pautrizel to ask whether this effect might extend to the prevention or cure of atherosclerosis. Another short paper communicated, as usual, by Courrier: (17) , described a “spectacular” attenuation of the hyperlipemia induced in rabbits by a diet of “industrial granules” supplemented by l% of cholesterol, resulting in a daily cholesterol intake by each rabbit of about 1 gram. The ob served effect of irradiation took the form of all inhibition of increased cholesterolemia, persisting for several weeks after treatment, and a marked decrease in the extent of aortic deposition.  I find the data rather unconvincing, with quite a lot of overlap of experimental and control values. As for the explanation of the effect, if it can be confirmed, Pautrizel and colleagues (17) ask whether it could be due to an activation of lipid catabolism. Strangely enough they do not discuss the role of macrophages in the regression of tumors, the cure of trypanosomiasis, or the prevention of hypercholesterolemia, although macrophage mobilization might provide a common mechanism. 

THE INVENTION

          Much has been written deploring Priore's secretiveness.  It has been an embarrassment in one camp and a ground for dismissing his invention in another.  My own view is that a secretive inventor and his invention, if important, must be investigated as a part of the external world, and the obstacle posed by limited cooperation accepted in the spirit in which the inaccessibility of nature is accepted as a challenge to our wits. Priore has in fact been much more considerate than the Almighty, who after all has provided no blueprints to his creations, while Priore included in his first paper a footnote (9) informing us

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