IMMUNOLOGY AND SELF-SAVING CATALYSTS 147 



pattern when they are detached and removed to some other part of 

 the organism. Changes in hydrogen ion or other ion concentration 

 might readily account for such detachment and changes, which 

 would be in the nature of an electroversion. In its simplest form 

 this concept may be illustrated by the following diagrams,* 

 wherein positively charged areas are represented as depressions 

 below, and negatively charged areas as elevations above, the dotted 

 line representing neutrality. (See Figure 17). 



"The applicability of Emil Fischer's well-known analogy of lock 

 and key, which he applied to the fitting of enzyme to substrate, is 

 at once manifest. That such an antibody particle would tend to 

 unite with particles of its specific antigen seems obvious; and the 

 neutral units would tend to flocculate if conditions would permit — 

 presence of precipitating ions and absence of colloidal pro- 

 tectors. . . . 



Figure 17. (Left) Active "antigen area" in modified catalyst. (Right) Oppositely 

 changed area in antibody formed by modified catalyst. [Courtesy Protoplasma, Vol. 

 14, No. 2 (1931).] 



"The effectiveness and lasting effect of minute quantities of 

 antigens becomes comprehensible on the basis of this view, for in 

 theory at least, one single molecule or colloidal particle would be 

 sufficient to convert a cell or an extracellular catalyst into a 

 potential producer of a specific antibody. Furthermore, there is 

 no reason why large numbers of different antigens may not simul- 

 taneously or successively affect the same cell with its many thou- 

 sands of genes and other catalyst particles — which corresponds with 

 the experimental facts. As long as the catalyst-antigen complex 

 continues to function to produce the specific antibody, so long will 

 the production of immune bodies continue, despite bleeding. 

 Variations in the duration of immunity would correspond to 

 variations in the persistence of the antigen-catalyst complex while 

 inability to establish immunity would indicate the non-formation 

 of such a complex (or destruction of the antibody). All these 

 phenomena appear in 'vaccinations,' a general term indicating in- 

 troduction of antigens with the hope that immunity will result." 



* The actual fields of force extend in three dimensions. 



