STUDIES ON SO-CALLED PROTECTIVE FERMENTS 

 I. The sensitization of substratum for the Abderhalden test.* 



J. BRONFENBRENNER. W. T. MITCHELL, JR, and M. J. SCHLESINGER 



{Pathological and Research Laboratories of the Western Pennsylvania Hospital, 



Pittsburgh, Pa.) 



Recently the Bordet-Gengou discovery of the phenomenon of 

 complement fixation stood at the center of interest in immunology; 

 today, Abderhalden's discovery of the existence of specific ferments 

 has taken its place. Probably both deal with the same set of ques- 

 tions and problems, but Abderhalden's theory Substitutes for terms 

 of immunology terms of chemistry, and designates, as specific fer- 

 ments, the reactive complexes in the body Juices which before were 

 named anti- and immune-bodies. Although it is as yet too early to 

 say what new ideas Abderhalden's theory has afforded for the un- 

 derstanding of the mechanism of chemical defense in the body, as 

 compared with those formulated by Ehrlich, it is already possible 

 to say that it has rendered a great Service by giving a method for 

 the detection of antibodies or defensive ferments where previous 

 methods failed to distinguish them. 



In 1909 one of us, while working in the laboratory of Professor 

 Metchnikoff, attempted, at the Suggestion of Dr. Weinberg, to 

 search for specific antibody in the blood of pregnant animals, using 

 placenta as antigen, but various attempts in this direction failed to 

 bring about a satisfactory method of diagnosis of pregnancy. We 

 have therefore lately attempted to determine whether the substances 

 brought into play in the Abderhalden reaction are of the nature of 

 antibody, as "antibody" was understood in 1909, or are entirely 

 different. 



Although we do not assert to have found definite proof that the 

 nature of the defensive ferments is identical with that of the anti- 

 body or amboceptor, the results of our experiments seem, neverthe- 

 less, to contribute additional evidence to the effect that a certain 

 amount of parallelism between the two undoubtedly exists. 



* The work described in this paper was inaugurated in March, 1914. 



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