X 



THE EFFECTS OF IRRADIATION ON VENOMS, TOXINS, 

 ANTIBODIES, AND RELATED SUBSTANCES 



S. C. Brooks 



University of California, Berkeley, Cal. 



Irradiation in vitro: Venoms. Saponins and toxic proteins of plant origin. Bac- 

 terial toxins. Antigens {Tuberculous; Syphilitic; Bacterial; Miscellaneous). Alexin. 

 Antibodies {Specific hemolysins; Bacteriolysins; Syphilitic antibody; Precipitins; 

 Agglutinins; Phagocytosis and opsonins; Anaphylaxis; Antitoxins). Irradiation in 

 vivo: Alexin. Antibodies {Specific hemolysins; Bacteriolysins, phagocytosis, and 

 opsonins; Alexin fixation and syphilitic antibody; Agglutinins; Antitoxins). Resume. 

 References. 



There exists a literature of about 125 papers or series of papers, 

 excluding preliminary communications and reviews, which deal with 

 this group of substances. About 100 of these deal with effects produced 

 in vitro; the remainder deal with supposed effects produced in vivo by 

 local or general irradiation of living animals. The latter are particu- 

 larly difficult to evaluate and to interpret and will be treated separately 

 at the end of this chapter. 



It should also be kept clearly in mind that very few of these so-called 

 "substances" are really known in any other way than by their effects. 

 Many are undoubtedly one or a few related well-defined substances, e.g., 

 bacterial toxins; others, e.g., some snake venoms, appear to include 

 several distinct, more or less well-defined, substances; others, such as 

 alexin, agglutinins, and, in fact, most pathogenic antigens and antibodies 

 are literally nothing but ill-understood properties of vaguely apprehended 

 complex colloidal systems. Further discussion of so involved and 

 technical a topic is out of question here, although recent research has 

 yielded some encouraging progress.^ 



Even where assuredly no real substance is now known, we shall here, 

 for the sake of brevity, refer to "substances." 



The experiments on irradiation in vitro suffer from the lack of ade- 

 quate quantitative technique; workers using survival of test animals as 

 a criterion have almost uniformly failed to use enough animals to give 

 their results statistical validity, while experiments using hemolysis, 

 bacteriolysis, agglutination, or the like, are usually recorded in terms of 



1 For further discussion of this field the reader is referred to H. G. Wells, "The 

 Chemical Aspects of Immunity" (163) and to other works cited there. 



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