110 The Nature of Precipitin Reactions 



agrees therefore with Nolf that serum-albumins do not lead to the 

 formation of precipitins. 



Liepraann (18, xii. 1902) treated rabbits in the usual way with 

 placenta emulsion, obtaining antiserum which caused precipitation in 

 the presence of bits of placenta, and possessed slight haemolytic power. 

 Pieces of organs, including pieces of the uterus, and also blood, gave 

 no precipitation even after ^ to 1 hour. This author's technique 

 is certainly open to criticism. Liepmann (29, i. '03, p. 81) further 

 reports that his antiserum for human placenta gives reactions with 

 foetal serum (obtained from the cord), reacting more with placental 

 substance, but giving no reaction with blood serum of a man and non- 

 gravid woman. He proposes to test the serum of gravid women, to 

 see if by means of the test he is able to demonstrate the presence of 

 placental substance (Veit) in their circulation. Notel (13, in. 1902) 

 following the method suggested by Uhlenhuth for the identification 

 of meats (see Section IX.) states that an antiserum for muscle-albumin 

 gave a greater reaction with muscle extract than did the corresponding 

 haematoserum. The statement requires confirmation, no other experi- 

 ments of a comparative character having as yet apparently been made. 



Uhlenhuth (6, xii. '02) obtained an antiserum for the yolk of egg, 

 which precipitated yolk of egg dilutions, but did not act upon egg- 

 white dilutions, except when these were fairly concentrated, and even 

 then but slight action was observable after a considerable time. This 

 antiserum also clouded avian serum slightly. He concludes therefore 

 that the albuminous constituents of egg-white and yolk are different. 

 Egg-white, as we know, contains albumin and globulin, egg-yolk 

 containing vitelline, lecithine, and nuclein. He recommends this 

 antiserum for the detection of egg-yolk in the examination of foods. 



Graham-Smith and Sanger (1903, p. 268) working in our laboratory 

 with my quantitative method {q. v.) obtained the following differences 

 in the amount of precipitum when anti-human serum was added to 

 different body fluids in 1 : 21 dilutions. Anti-human serum No. I. was 

 much more powerful than No. II:, which moreover had undergone 

 putrefaction. 



Material Anti-human Anti-human from means Normal 



No. I. No. II. of the.se two Anti-ox rabbit 



1. Fresh human serum (2 days) 



2. Old „ „ (8 months) 



3. Placental serum (8 months) 



4. Pleuritic exudate (2 weeks) 



5. Hydrocele fluid (9 months) 



6. Fluid from ovarian cyst ) 



(9 months) | 



7. Amniotic fluid (9 months) 



