XXI. CONCERNING THE COMPLEMENTOPHILE GROUPS 



OF THE AMBOCEPTORS. 1 



By Prof. Dr. P. EHRLICH and H. T. MARSHALL, M.D., Fellow of the Rockefeller 



Institute of Medical Research. 



THE studies of the past year, especially the recent conclusive 

 work of Ehrlich and Sachs, 2 show that we may regard it as definitely 

 proven that, in contrast to the Unitarian conception of Bordet, there 

 is a plurality of complements in the serum. 



This knowledge largely supplements our views concerning the 

 mechanism of lysin action, and is in complete harmony with the 

 principles of the amboceptor theory. The latter, in contrast to the 

 untenable sensitization theory of Bordet, has become still more 

 firmly established through the recent experiments carried out in the 

 Institute by M. Neisser and Wechsberg, 3 Lipstein, 4 and Ehrlich and 

 Sachs. 5 



If we consider that, as is shown especially by Bordet's experi- 

 ments, 6 an amboceptor, after having been anchored by cellular ele- 

 ments, can almost completely rob a serum of its complement, and if, 

 further, we regard what we now know about the plurality of comple- 

 ments, we shall of necessity be led to a view concerning amboceptors 

 according to which an amboceptor is capable of binding a number of 

 different complements simultaneously. Attention was called to such 

 a possibility by Ehrlich and Morgenroth 7 when they stated: "Finally, 

 it is possible that an immune body, besides one particular cytophile 



1 Reprint from the Berl. klin. Wochenschr. 1902, No. 25. 



2 See page 195. 3 See page 120. 4 See page 132. 5 See page 209. 



6 Bordet, Annal. de 1'Institut Pasteur, May 1901. 



7 See pages 88 et seq. 



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