BACTERIOLYSIS AND ALLIED PHENOMENA l8l 



haemolytic complement prepared by Levaditi from autolyzed 

 lymphoid tissue was one of these lipoid substances ; it was 

 soluble in alcohol and thermostable. The substance prepared by 

 Morgenroth and Korschun from extracts of various organs was 

 probably similar in nature, since they showed it to be thermostable, 

 and not to give rise to the production of antibodies on injection. 

 It may be at once admitted, as pointed out by Conradi, that 

 autolytic changes occurring in various organs give rise to the 

 production of bactericidal substances ; these may, perhaps, be 

 organic acids or other simple substances, but they do not help us 

 in the inquiry as to whether complement (having the power to 

 dissolve sensitized bacteria or red corpuscles) is formed from 

 the leucocytes. 



The most important researches on this point are those of 

 Schattenfroh and Petrie, and they are mutually contradictory. 

 Schattenfroh washed the leucocytes thoroughly in saline solution, 

 added it to the heated serum, and obtained a bactericidal effect. 

 His results were corroborated by Lastchenko. Petrie's researches 

 were carried out with great care, and he was especially particular 

 to remove every trace of complement adhering to the leucocytes 

 by repeated washing in normal saline solution. (Ascher had 

 previously shown that some trace might remain when the process 

 had only been carried out three times.) The leucocytes were 

 obtained from aleuron exudates, and after washing they were 

 frozen to the temperature of liquid air, and ground to an im- 

 palpable powder, the method used being that of Macfadyen for 

 the preparation of endotoxin. His results were entirely negative, 

 and he failed entirely to reactivate heated bactericidal serum by 

 any of his extracts. Lambotte failed equally, working on lines 

 more like those of Schattenfroh. 



Petrie's experiments seem conclusive on the point which he 

 investigated, and it seems quite certain that polynuclear leucocytes 

 do not contain alexin or complement as such ; they do not, how- 

 ever, negative the possibility that they may contain a precursor of 

 this substance, which may either be secreted or set free during 

 the natural solution of the leucocyte, in either case being converted 

 into an active form during the process. Both these views have 

 been widely held, and we shall discuss them later. 



3. In the process of coagulation of the blood large numbers of 

 the leucocytes, and especially the polynuclears, are disintegrated 

 and partially dissolved, and these disintegrated leucocytes are 



