Ill 



lents be added one third is free, and if ten equivalents 

 are added then yet one eleventh part of the base is free. 

 The curve representing this phenomenon, the upper 

 curve in fig. 6 is tangent to the upper end of the line, 

 which represents the course of neutralisation of a strong 

 acid - and on the other hand for higher additions of 

 acid it approaches to an equilateral hyperbola (y = ^). 



As before said this last mentioned curve gives an 

 almost exact representation of the neutralisation of am- 

 monia with boracic acid (at 37 C in a solution not too 

 concentrated). If the action of ammonia as hiemolysin 

 had been investigated, then ex analogia a similar spec- 

 trum as in the case of usual toxin or tetanolysin (fig. 

 3) had been made and the following conclusion had 

 been drawn: Boracic acid (antitoxin), added in the amount 

 1 to ammonia neutralises 50% of this base; added in 

 the amount of 2 neutralises 66,7 %, in the amount of 

 3 75 % and in the amount of 4 80 %; from this follows, 

 that whereas for each time the respective amounts of 

 toxin 50, 16,7, 8,3 and 5 % are neutralised by the same 

 amount of boracic acid, the first amount of ammonia 

 neutralised is three times as toxic as the amount neu- 

 tralised next, which again is double as toxic as the next 

 amount; the latter is l l / z times more toxic than the fol- 

 lowing etc. In other terms ammonia is no simple body, 

 but consists of several components of different toxicily 

 (and these toxicities are in simple reciprocal proporti- 

 ons). Of these components the toxin with the greatest 

 chemical affinity is first neutralised 1 ). 



A similar conclusion has been drawn in the case 

 of toxin, and the toxin first neutralised (the strongest) 

 has been called proto-toxin, the next deutero-toxin, the 



!) From considerations, which can hardly he maintained, Danysz (I. c.) has put 

 forwards similar objections. 



70 



