In 1906 he noticed that patients who had previously received injections of horse serum orsmallpox vaccine had quicker, more severe reactions to a second injection. He coined the wordallergy (from the Greekallos meaning "other" andergon meaning "work") to describe thishypersensitivity reaction.[1]
Soon after, the observation with smallpox led Pirquet to realize thattuberculin, whichRobert Koch isolated from thebacteria that causetuberculosis in 1890, might lead to a similar type of reaction.Charles Mantoux expanded upon Pirquet's ideas and theMantoux test, in which tuberculin is injected into the skin, became a diagnostic test for tuberculosis in 1907.
In 1909 he declined proposals to take a position at thePasteur Institute in Paris and to become a professor at theJohns Hopkins University. In 1910 he returned to Europe taking positions inBreslau (now Wrocław) and then Vienna.
^Regarding personal names:Freiherr was a title before 1919, but now is regarded as part of the surname. It is translated asBaron. Before the August 1919 abolition of nobility as a legal class, titles preceded the full name when given (Graf Helmuth James von Moltke). Since 1919, these titles, along with any nobiliary prefix (von,zu, etc.), can be used, but are regarded as a dependent part of the surname, and thus come after any given names (Helmuth James Graf von Moltke). Titles and all dependent parts of surnames are ignored in alphabetical sorting. The feminine forms areFreifrau andFreiin.
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