STUDIES ON H.EMOLYSIXS. 63 



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If rabbits are poisoned with a dose of phosphorus, of which they 

 die on the third day, and if the serum of the animal is collected on 

 the second day, it will be found that the serum has lost the property, 

 previously possessed, to dissolve guinea-pig blood. This inactive 

 serum can be activated by the addition of a sufficient amount of 

 guinea-pig serum. It behaves, therefore, like a serum which has 

 been inactivated by heating to 55 0., i.e. it has been deprived of 

 its complement. It is probable that the phosphorus has acted 

 especially on certain cell domains which furnish the complements 

 in question. 



II. Concerning Anticomplements. 



In accordance with the views already discussed in detail, we 

 assume that the hsemolytic action is due to this, that the interbody 

 (immune body) and complement unite to form the complex hsemolysin. 

 We can understand such relations only when we regard them stereo- 

 chemically and must therefore assume that the complement possesses 

 a haptophore group which finds in the interbody a receptor group 

 into which it exactly fits. With this conception, however, the rela- 

 tions existing between interbody and complement at once assume 

 a strictly specific character, i.e., the interbody and complement become 

 strongly specifically related. As a result of combining experiments 

 we have already l attacked the view of Bordet, that the immune body 

 merely sensitizes the red blood-cells and that as a result of this sen- 

 sitization the alexins, which otherwise are unable to attack the blood- 

 cells, now have access to them. That the " substance sensibila- 

 trice " breaks the way for the alexins is a coarse mechanical con- 

 ception hardly comprehensible when viewed chemically or biologic- 

 ally. If one sought to explain Bordet's view chemically, one w r ould 

 have to assume that the nature of the sensitization is this, that under 

 the influence of the sensitizor a whole series of groups are developed 

 in the protoplasm of the red blood-cells which are able to bind the 

 various complements. Such an assumption, however, lacks every 

 element of probability. Bordet 2 himself arrives at a contradiction 

 when on the one hand he assumes a direct action of the comple- 

 ments on the red blood-cells and on the other is forced to admit 

 that certain relations exist between interbody and complement 



1 See our second communication. 



1 Bordet, Annales de 1'lnstitut Pasteur, May 1900. 



