The use of extracts of spleen in the treatment of certain dermatoses has excited considerable interest since the work of von Zumbusch1 and Mayr and Moncorps2 abroad and of Paul3 in America.
Von Zumbusch,1 who utilized the observation of Ehrlich4 that eosinophilia developed in splenectomized animals, was the first to call attention to the clinical relationship of defective function of the spleen to eosinophilia. Mayr and Moncorps2 injected subcutaneously an albumin-free extract of hog's spleen into a group of patients who had itching dermatoses associated with eosinophilia, and reported diminution in eosinophils, decreased itching and general improvement. Schlack5 also observed a decrease in the eosinophils of the blood after the injection of extract of spleen, but his results in the treatment of eczema with this preparation were not so striking as were those of the aforementioned writers. Subsequently, in a paper