MARY E. MAVER 743 



the charge carried by toxin and antitoxin had not given unequivocal results, probably 

 because the apparatus he used necessitated the migration of the toxin or antitoxin 

 through either fish bladders or parchment membranes. Of the electric charge carried 

 by antigens and antibodies Bechhold said: "It is so small, however, that in my opinion 

 it cannot be definitely recognized since traces of hydrogen or hydroxyl ions may cause 

 a reversal of charge."' 



Landsteiner and Pauli,^ using a U-shaped cataphoresis tube with adjoining vessels 

 for platinum electrodes, were able to show that abrin, ricin, and the agglutinin for 

 hen serum migrated to the anode in alkaline and to the cathode in acidic solution. 

 They suggested that a potential difference at the boundary between the agar and the 

 solution might be the cause of the different results obtained by Field and Teague. 



The results of Field and Teague have been widely quoted, and in some texts 

 toxin and antitoxin are assumed to be positive colloids. Since no careful hydrogen-ion 

 determinations of the solutions used were made by these authors the work was re- 

 peated in this laboratory^ under their experimental conditions. In our research diph- 

 theria toxin and antitoxin solutions^ were electrolyzed in a Field and Teague ap- 

 paratus at all the hydrogen-ion concentrations compatible with the maintenance of 

 potency in the solutions. The work of Field and Teague was confirmed. Under their 

 experimental conditions antitoxin was found only in the cathode agar in a pH range 

 of from 2.5 to 13.0, and, similarly, toxin was found in the cathode agar in a pH range 

 of from 4.5 to 13.0. In no case was there evidence of any migration of toxin or anti- 

 toxin to the anode. 



In the antitoxin series it was found that the protein of the antitoxic plasma also 

 was present in the cathode agar in the same pH range. The protein was determined 

 by nitrogen analyses and by anaphylactic reactions on guinea pigs which had been 

 protected by the extracts of the cathode agar. These results were contrary to those 

 of numerous workers who have all agreed that a protein in a solution alkaline to its 

 isoelectric point migrates to the anode. A great many different kinds of natural and 

 purified proteins in alkaline solution were found in the cathode arc of the Field and 

 Teague apparatus. Since the same substances were found to migrate normally to the 

 anode in alkaline solution in a U-shaped cataphoresis tube in which no agar was 

 present, the agar was thought to be responsible for the anomalous migration of the 

 protein in this apparatus. 



An investigation of the role of the agar in the Field and Teague apparatus led to 

 the conclusion that the proteins in alkaline solution were carried to the cathode agar 

 by the endosmotic streaming of the water.5 The agar is always negative,^ and affords 

 many small capillaries which favor the endosmotic streaming of the water to the 



' Bechhold, H.: Colloids in Biology and Medicine, p. 205. 1919. 



2 Landsteiner, K., and Pauli, W.: Wien. nted. Wchnschr., 58, loio. 1908. 



3 Maver, M. E., and Falk, I. S.: /. Iimnunol., 14, 219. 1927. (In press.) 



t We are indebted to Dr. C. R. Hixson, of the United States Standard Products Co., Woodworth, 

 Wis., for a generous supply of diphtheria toxin and antitoxin. 

 5 Freundlich, H.: Colloid and Capillary Chemistry, p. 245. 



^Gyemant,A.: Kolloid-Ztschr., 28, 10$. 1921; Kruyt,H.R., and de Jong, H. G.: Zlschr.f.phys. 

 Chemie, 100, 250. 1922. 



