Medicine: Death's Sting

Four months ago in Natick, Mass, a countryman named Vito Geneva was stung by a bee. He felt no serious effects at the time, but in his body there occurred an obscure, powerful response called anaphylaxis. This unusual condition is the opposite of immunity. A minute dose of a foreign protein makes the victim vastly more susceptible thereafter to further small injections of the same substance. Thenceforth to Vito Geneva a bee was as dangerous as a cobra.

Last week, while working on a farm, Vito Geneva was again stung by bees in the...

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