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HAEMOLYSIS EHRLICH'S RESEARCHES 



i 



occurred ; complement had evidently not been withdrawn from the 

 fluid. Complement, therefore, will not unite with red corpuscles 

 direct. It has no haptophore group with an affinity for the 

 receptors of the latter. 



This led Ehrlich to the theory that the complement united with 

 the red corpuscle only indirectly by means of the amboceptor. 



FIG. 31. THE SUPERNATANT FLUID FROM FIG. 29, TESTED WITH HEATED 

 IMMUNE SERUM AND SHEEP'S CORPUSCLES. 



Solution takes place, showing that the complement had not been removed. 



FIG. 32. FRESH IMMUNE SERUM (OR A MIXTURE OF HEATED IMMUNE 

 SERUM AND FRESH NORMAL SERUM) ADDED TO CORPUSCLES AT o C. 



Amboceptor unites therewith, complement does not. 



He pictured the latter as having two haptophore groups : a cyto- 

 phile, which we have already mentioned, and a complementophile, 

 with which the complement could unite after the former had 

 seized on a receptor of the red corpuscle. The process of haemo- 

 lysis was supposed to take place as follows : In fresh immune 

 serum or in a mixture of heated immune serum and fresh normal 

 serum (i.e., of amboceptor and complement) the two substances 

 occur independently of one another. When the mixture is kept 

 in the cold, and red corpuscles are added, the cytophile groups of 

 the amboceptor molecules attach themselves to the receptors of 



