XXII. CONCERNING THE COMPLEMENTIBILITY OF 



THE AMBOCEPTORS. 1 



By Dr. J. MORGENROTH, Member of the Institute, and Dr. H. SACHS, Assistant 



at the Institute. 



I. A Presumptive Law Concerning the Complementibility of Normal 

 Amboceptors and those Obtained by Immunization. 



GRUBER 2 believes he has discovered an essential difference in the 

 complementibility of the normal amboceptors of blood serum and 

 those produced by immunization. He says: "The amboceptors 3 

 of the normal sera never seem to make the erythrocytes of another 

 species sensitive to their own serum, . . . and I think I can say before- 

 hand that the specific amboceptors regularly make the erythrocytes 

 soluble in their own serum. This w r ould constitute an essential 

 difference between the two." 



If Gruber believes Ehrlich has ever maintained that the ambo- 

 ceptors of normal and of immune sera are identical, this is a mis- 

 understanding. On the contrary, the studies at this Institute 4 have 

 emphasized that the immune sera, owing to the manifold variety 

 of the reaction products developed in the immunization, contain a 

 great host of different partial amboceptors whose cytophile and 

 complementophile groups can vary greatly. Normal serum, on the 

 contrary, possesses only few types of amboceptors identical with 

 those of the immune serum. Hence if there is to be any question at 

 all as to the identity of normal and artificially produced amboceptors, 

 this can only be a partial identity. Special proof by Gruber of their 

 non-identity in order to controvert the opposite view was therefore 

 unnecessary. However, since what Gruber advances is incorrect and in 



1 Reprint from the Berl. klin. Wochenschr. 1902, No. 27. 



2 Gruber, Miinch. med. Wochenschr. 1901, No. 49. 



3 Gruber terms this " preparator." 



4 See especially pages 88 et seq. 



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