NATURE OF THE ACTIVE PRINCIPLES 323 



tioii of the globulin fraction of the sera. The sera diluted in dis- 

 tilled -water possessed no reacting potency ^vhatsoever. 



Friedberger and Moreschi (1912) observed that anaphylatoxin 

 was destroyed by treatment \vith normal NaOH. Novy and De- 

 Krtiif foinid that normal Na^CO.^ in abotu one-sixth the concen- 

 tration of the salt is more active than NaOH. In order to deter- 

 mine 'whether soditim carbonate has a protecti\'e action against 

 the phenomenon, rabbits -were prepared Avith B. typhosus "agar 

 washings" filtrates and were injected with 0.75 c.c. of normal 

 NaoCOa soltition intravenously, per kilo of body ^veight (a maxi- 

 mum dose Avell tolerated) and immediately after^vards with 100 

 reacting imits of B. typhosus filtrate. No inhibitions of the reac- 

 tions \vere observed. 



Following }. Bordet's observations ^vith agar, various investi- 

 gators (quoted by Doerr, 1929) "were capable of producing ana- 

 phylatoxins by treating sera ^vith a great variety of various sub- 

 stances, namely, heterologotis inactivated serum (Friedberger and 

 Nathan) , boiled protein (Friedberger, Neufeld and Dold, Bron- 

 fenbrenner) , bacteria, trypanosomas, and peptone (Friedberger 

 and Mata, Besredka, Novy and DeKruif, and others) , starch 

 (Friedemann and Schoenfeld, Nathan, P. Schmidt, and others) , 

 inidin (Nathan, Ritz, and Sachs, and others) , kaolin, barium 

 sulphate and infusorial earth (Sachs and Ritz, Bauer, Doerr, E. P. 

 Pick, Muttermilch, Kopaczewski, Bronfenbrenner and others) . 

 The following stibstances, ho^vever, ^vere fotuid by me to be totally 

 devoid of reacting potency in rabbits prepared with active bacterial 

 filtrates: Charcoal, infusorial earth, Witte's peptone, silicic acid, 

 gelatin, heparin, 20 per cent NaCl soliuion, variotis tissue extracts, 

 inulin, lecithin, and various animal sera and plasma. Sickles (1931, 

 1934) failed to produce reactions with galactose, gelatin, horse 

 serum, and India ink. P. Bordet (1936^) could not elicit any 

 reactions \\'\t\\ "electrargol," calcium phosphate and neosalvarsan. 



The afore-described experiments point very definitely to the 

 lack of correlation bet^veen anaphylatoxins and the reacting 

 potency of the phenomenon under consideration. The lack of 

 correlation is based on tlie differences in susceptibility of species; 

 inability of producing reacting potency m vitro by exposure to 

 agar; inactivity of sensitized ox red blood cells; lack of potency in 

 agar devoid of nitrogenous sid)stances; inacti\'ity of defibrinated 

 blood; failine of distilled water and defibrinated blood of sen- 

 sitized rats treated with distilled water to elicit reacting potency 



