JOINT ACTION OF AMBOCEPTORS IN HAEMOLYSIS. 609 



complement, and anticomplement are so important that the failure 

 of inhibition when large amounts of amboceptor are employed 

 may be ascribed to the disproportion between the reacting sub- 

 stances. This phase of the subject has been investigated by Mor- 

 genroth and Sachs. 1 Finally mention should be made of a fact 

 reported by Pfeiffer and Friedberger which strongly supports the 

 anticomplement theory. By means of bacterial absorption they 

 succeeded in converting normal rabbit, goat, and pigeon serum 

 into inhibiting serum, but failed to convert giunea-pig serum. Yet 

 it is well established by experiments in this direction that bacter- 

 iolysis takes place in the peritoneal cavity of guinea pigs, that, 

 in other words, these animals do furnish complement. The negative 

 result obtained with guinea-pig serum, therefore, may be regarded 

 as indicating the absence of autoanticomplements, and the exper- 

 iment affords additional reason for believing that the antagonistic 

 aubstances observed by Pfeiffer and Friedberger are probably 

 anticomplements. 



1 Morgenroth and Sachs. Berliner klin. Wochenschrift, No. 35, 1902. 



