Ill 



Tab. 14. 

 Comparison of old and fresh tetanolysin. 



If we, according to the usual view (Ehrlich), try to ex- 

 plain the decrease of the toxicity of tetanolysin through 

 the supposition, that the toxin is to a certain extent (in 

 this case to 5 / 6 ) transformed to an atoxic body (proto- 

 toxoid), it seems to he an obvious explanation of this 

 fact, that the proto-toxoid has a greater affinity to the 

 antitoxin than the toxin itself. In this supposition a 

 greater percentage of the proto-toxoid is fixed to begin 

 with than later on. In the present case the difference of 

 K for fresh and old lysin is certainly not especially great, 

 but in other cases this difference might be very pronoun- 

 ced, so that it for this reason might seem necessary to sup- 

 pose the formation of a proto-toxoid. An analysis such 

 as that above for tetanolysin will show, if the supposi- 

 tion is necessary or not. 



As above indicated the toxin does not combine im- 

 mediately with antitoxin, but this phenomenon is 

 especially obvious, when the amount of antitoxin is 

 great, as appears from the following experiment. 1 ) The 



Th. Madsen: Sur les toxones. XIII. Congrcs international de medecine. Paris 

 1900. 



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