244 COLLECTED STUDIES IN IMMUNITY. 



because of a rather important contradiction which exists between 

 them and certain experiments recently published by Schattenfroh. 1 

 This author found that one can produce hccmolytic immune bodies for 

 goat blood by injecting rabbits with goat urine. He was unable, 

 however, to obtain these immune bodies by injection of the corre- 

 sponding serum. It must at once be regarded as extraordinary that 

 immune bodies which evidently are excreted through the kidney regu- 

 larly and plentifully should be absent from the serum itself. It 

 would, of course, have been possible to say that the concentration 

 of the receptors in the serum was small compared to that in the urine, 

 as is the case, for example, with urea, uric acid, and other substancers. 

 But the casual antiamboceptor action of the serum prevented this, 

 and pointed to the presence in this of the dissolved receptors. As a 

 matter of fact, therefore, the "interesting contradiction" described 

 by Schattenfroh as existing between the action of the urine and the 

 serum does not obtain; for it is possible by injecting rabbits with 

 goat serum completely deprived of blood-cells to produce specific 

 amboceptors. These amboceptors, to be sure, do not become mani- 

 fest if the usual methods of investigation, such as have been em- 

 ployed by Schattenfroh, are followed. They are, however, readily and 

 surely demonstrated if one attends to certain fine details. 



As a rule a haemolytic serum obtained by specific immunization 

 will, when fresh, dissolve the corresponding blood-cells; for, as v. 

 Dungern has shown, in immunization with blood-cells the comple- 

 ments usually do not in any sense suffer a change. Only one excep- 

 tion is thus far known in this respect, namely, the injection of goat 

 serum into the organism of a rabbit. Ehrlich and Moregnroth 2 have 

 shown that the injection of goat serum into rabbits is followed by 

 the loss of certain complements of the rabbit serum, a loss which is 

 caused by the development of anticomplements directed against 

 the complements of their own serum. These anticomplements are 

 therefore to be regarded as auto-anticomplements. They not only 

 suffice to neutralize the complements present in the serum, but are 

 able to bind complement subsequently added. Thus the amboceptor 

 of a rabbit mixed with goat serum is completely obscured; for if 

 the immune serum is employed fresh, the fitting complements enabling 

 it to act are lacking, while if the serum is inactivated and one seeks 



1 Munch, med. Wochenschr. 1901, No. 31. 



2 See pages 71 et seq. 



