THE ROLE of the nervous system in the phenomenon of immunity and in the genesis of antibodies has been the subject of research by a number of workers in the past few decades. Unfortunately, the studies were incomplete and the experimental methods inadequate; the results were, therefore, inconclusive and contradictory. Spiess,1 in 1906, was the first to notice that the clinical course of acute inflammation was altered by the use of anesthetics. Lacqueur and Magnus2 found that severe inflammation of the lungs, following phosgene poisoning in cats, could be diminished, or even entirely averted, by a preliminary sectioning of the vagus nerves in the neck. Moltkov, while engaged in clinical surgery, observed similar changes in the course of inflammatory conditions following nerve sectioning. On the other hand, Shimura,3 working in Lubarsch's laboratory, found no difference in the course of inflammation in denervated tissues and concluded that the