THE ISOLATION OF SNAKE VENOM LECITHIDS. 469 



complement and amboceptor unite to form a new poisonous combina- 

 tion, and this is the view which I also take. Bordet, however, even 

 in his latest study 1 asumes that there is no direct affinity between com- 

 plement (alexin) and amboceptor, but "que la sensibilatrice modifie 

 1' element de maniere a lui faire acquerir le pouvoir de fixer directement 

 1'alexine avec beaucoup d'energie." 



The Frankfurt Institute has furnished a number of important argu- 

 ments for the direct union of amboceptor of complement. Because 

 of the lability and great number of the complements as well as the 

 impossibility to isolate the active product chemically it was out of the 

 question to furnish direct chemical proof for these views. Nor is there 

 in the present state of scientific knowledge any hope that this problem 

 will be solved in the near future. For this reason we rejoiced in the 

 discovery that in lecithin we had found a substance possessing 

 complement-like properties, and which because of its chemical 

 behavior would serve to settle this dispute. 



In other words, it was to be seen whether or not the cobra am- 

 boceptor combined directly with the lecithin to form a new haemolytic 

 combination. If it did not do so, it would help sustain Bordet's 

 view that the union of the cobra venom amboceptor serves only to 

 give the lecithin access to the blood-cell. From the following studies 

 it will be seen that the decision which we had been led to expect 

 as the result of our biological experiments is confirmed by chemical 

 means. 



One thing especially argued for the correctness of our conception, 

 namel} r , the fact that it is possible to inhibit the cobra venom 

 haemolysis by employing very large amounts of cobra amboceptor. 

 In that case susceptible blood-cells which can be dissolved by a 

 certain definite amount of cobra amboceptor are no longer dissolved 

 if many times this amount is employed. This corresponds to the 

 phenomenon which we observe in certain bactericidal sera, and 

 which according to Neisser and Wechsberg is due to a deflection of 

 complement through an excess of free amboceptor. The result is 

 comprehensible only on the assumption of a direct chemical affinity 

 between amboceptor and complement. For this reason we felt that 

 it would be of the greatest interest to gain a clearer insight through 



1 Mode d' action et origine des substances actives, des scrums prevent ifs 

 et des serums antitoxiques. Rapport presente par J. Bordet au Congres de 

 Hygiene et Demographic, 1903. 



