1 76 IMMUNO-CATALYSIS 



1. Analysis of Bayliss' Objections Against the Existence 

 of Anti-Enzymes 



There have been pubhshcd numerous studies in support of or 

 against the existence of anti-enzyme immunity. Some of these studies 

 date back to the last decade of the 19th and early part of the 

 twentieth century. Numerous studies have been made and reported 

 on this subject since. Bayliss' has been one of the chief antagonists of 

 anti-enzyme immunity. One will find the list of his objections in the 

 first and through the fourth edition of his Principles of General 

 Physiology and also in all of the editions of his monograph on the 

 Nature of Enzyme Activity. Since, through these publications, Bay- 

 liss has, perhaps, been very influential in shaping the reserve or per- 

 haps the censorious attitude maintained by certain workers in the 

 field of immunology regarding anti-enzyme immunity, it is necessary 

 that his objections be analyzed. In his monograph on The Nature of 

 Enzyme Activity Bayliss (1925) has presented the following four 

 principal objections: 



First: "The facts that enzymes are not proteins and that evidence 

 is accumulating to show that their chemical constitution is of a sim- 

 pler nature than was supposed at one time, are, 'prima facie, grounds 

 for doubting their capacity of acting as antigens." We quote also the 

 following paragraph from Wells' (1929) Chemical Aspects of Im- 

 munity which expresses practically the same view as the above, i.e., 

 "At first both* were believed to be proteins; now both are considered 

 by many not to be proteins, but molecular complexes of nearly equally 

 great dimensions." 



The first objection of Bayliss, though the most important of the 

 four, is the weakest. Studies carried out during the last twenty years 

 have confirmed beyond doubt the older view of the protein nature of 

 enzymes by isolating and subjecting to critical experiments numerous 

 crystalline proteins with enzyme activities, such as urease, amylase, 

 trypsin, pepsin, papain, d-ribonuclease, catalase and numerous other 

 enzymes. These facts obviate Bayliss' principal objection. 



Second: Discussing the merits of certain studies on anti-enzymes 

 Bayliss claimed to have demonstrated that the absence of the proper 



*Toxins and enzymes. 



