74 



alexic and sensitising power of the blood by making it 

 «circulate in live isolated livers. 



HOUSSAY and SORDELLl (1921) found that rabbits 

 <dog'8 and iiorses, whose thyroid was extirpated, fur- 

 nished a greater quantity of hemolysins, agglutinitis and 

 antitoxins than controls. 



ECKER and OOLDBLATT 1921) showed the neces- 

 sity of an exact knowledge of anatomy in the experi- 

 ments of extirpation of the thyroid and para-thyroids 

 and ascertained that thyreoidectomy with partial para- 

 Ihyreoidectomy did not inhibit the production of anti- 

 bodies (hemolysins), whereas in the few animals who 

 survive a complete thyro parathyroidectomy the produ- 

 cticm of hemolysins is reduced to a fiftieth of the normal. 



SLSTINI (1921) assertes that during immunisation 

 against B. typhi the thyroid of guinea-pigs undergoes a 

 process of hyperplasia and shows intense morphologic 

 indications of cellular hypersecretion. 



CUTLER'S experiments (1922) show that the hypo- 

 physis does not have an important influence, direct or 

 indirect, on the production and persistence of aggluti- 

 nins and hemolysins in the blood, unless the part of the 

 hypothysis which is indispensable to the survival of the 

 animal, syould not have the same influence as the wyole 

 :gland. 



6°) The antibodies pre-exist in the 

 }jlood and liquid tissues of the body. 



New ideas were ad>'Ocated recently by SAHLl (1920). 



SAHLI disagrees with EHRLICH in thinking the pro- 

 ioplasm not to be the seat of production of antibodies. 

 The origin of these antibodies is the blood itself (which 

 according to bAHLI is a secretion) af.d the liquid tis- 

 sues ; the cells produce the antibodies physiologically 

 responding to stimuli from the blood and liquid tissues. 



The different antibodies preexist in the blood ; by 

 the admission of the antigen (immunisation^ an artificial 

 increase is obtained and this according to the well-known 

 law that a secretion increased to cover a defiency ex- 

 ceeds the necessary quantity. 



The production of antibodies would be merely a 

 particular case of blood-regeneration, an excessive rege- 

 «eration. This would take place on account of the fol- 

 lowing : Antigen and antibody unite in a colloidal com- 

 bination and the function which the antibody exerced 

 up to then ceases on that account. 



The organism reacts to this loss of antibody, which 

 had its ow i function, by an increased secretion, so as 

 to produce a new and greater amount of antibodies. 



11— Material and Methods of Research. 



We examined the bone-marrow of 54 

 rabbits, some under normal conditions, 

 most (40) of them in various stages of 

 immunisation for the obtention of agglu- 

 tinins. 



The animals, killed whan opportuni- 



ty arose, where iinnitdiately necropsicd; 

 those which died ia the course of the 

 experimentalion, where only made use 

 of when the posl-morlem could bi' car- 

 ried out immediately after death. 



In all cases the bone-marrow of the 

 femur of both sides was e.vamincd. 



The femur, once freed of the soft 

 par/s that covered it, was cnt üirough, 

 as near as possüjle to the epiphyses, 

 with a coslolome. At one end of the 

 bone-canal I would make two incisions 

 with sharps scissors and these would 

 be extended carefully in such a way as 

 to fracture the whole length of the 

 |)ony tulje. 



Ahnost always one of the halves 

 would then contahi a perfect cylinder of 

 bone-marrow. In the cases itn which 

 the consistency of the bone-marrow was 

 reduced the results obtained were less 

 satisfac/ory. 



The piece of bone to which the 

 marrow remained stuck was then placed 

 in the fixing-fluid, or else the cylinder 

 of bone-marrow was gently detached 

 from the bone with the aid of pincers, 

 and small pieces cut with the scissors 

 were dropped successively in sublimate- 

 alcohol and ZENKER-formol (without 

 acetic acid), the fi.xing- fluid employed. 

 Embedding was carried out in paraf- 

 fin and the sections were coloured by, 

 GiEMSA's fluid method (fixing in su- 

 blimate-alcohol) and with hœmatoxylin- 

 eosin (fixing in ZENKER-formol). 



In some cases the material was fixed 

 only in ZENKER-formol in which cases 

 the sections stained by GiEMSA's method 

 were less satisfactory than the ones stain- 

 ed with haematoxilin-eosin. In other ca- 

 ses the only f king-fluid employed was su- 

 blimate-alcohol ; besides first-rate prepa- 

 rations by GiEMSA's method I obtained 

 good ha;matoxylin-eosiu ones: the stai- 

 ning in undiluted HANSElN's hsematoxy- 

 lin must then not exceed one minute. 

 1 observed that shrinking was mor^ 



