34 THE PRINCIPLES OF IMMUNOLOGY 



For rapid production of antibodies Violle injected organisms 

 directly into the gall-bladder. This fact is of interest because it 

 indicates a possible function of the liver in the production of immune 

 bodies. Miiller claims to have been able to stimulate the formation 

 of hemolysin in liver tissue suspended in Ringer's solution outside 

 the animal body. By perfusing the organ with solutions contain- 

 ing iodine (iodipin) the effect was augmented, and he believes that 

 in the normal animal the iodine of the thyroid may play a certain 

 role in stimulating this special activity of the liver. Gay and Rusk 

 found no evidence to uphold the supposed influence of iodipin. 

 Hektoen and Carlson believe that both the spleen and liver are equally 

 concerned in antibody formation, but Hektoen and Curtis found 

 that in rats removal of about one-half of the liver appears to have 

 no effect on the development of hemolysin for sheep corpuscles. 

 The liver, just as the spleen, possesses highly active phagocytic 

 endothelial cells which may play an important role in the produc- 

 tion of antibodies. 



Numerous authors have shown that agglutinins appear in the 

 blood stream before they are present in the extracts of any organ. 

 The question, however, of whether or not the leucocytes are in- 

 volved in this generative process is a matter of considerable contro- 

 versy. Achard and Bensaud and others controvert the leucocytic or 

 local origin of agglutinins, whereas Cantacuz^ne and also Swerew 

 support this local origin in the formation of precipitins ; they noted 

 a hypoleucocytosis followed by a marked hyperleucocytosis, which 

 they think is responsible for the liberation of precipitins. Petit and 

 Carlson, Vaughan, Cumming, and McGlumphy found that sub- 

 stances like egg-white and serum disappear quickly from the cir- 

 culating blood ; in fact, within a few hours after the introduction of 

 these substances. Gay, however, has shown by means of comple- 

 ment-fixation that even in immune animals such antigens are dem- 

 onstrable after twenty-four hours, but not after forty-eight hours. 

 It was not possible to demonstrate the antigen by the fixation method 

 in organs like spleen, lymph-nodes, liver, kidney, and muscles, 

 either at the time antigen was present in the blood or twenty-four 

 hours thereafter. That the cells lining the blood-vessels may have 

 certain powers of antibody production may be shown by the fact 

 that a blood-vessel from an animal which has received several injec- 

 tions of sheep erythrocytes and which has been dissected out soon 

 after death of the animal and washed free from blood, has the power 

 to hemolyze a suspension of fresh, non-sensitized sheep cells (Van 

 Calcar). Kraus and Levaditi furthermore have shown that there 

 exists a certain relationship between precipitins and the number of 

 circulating leucocytes. Acute loss of blood profoundly affects anti- 

 body production. The earliest observations seem to have been those 

 of Roux and Vaillard. They found that in horses actively im- 

 munized against tetanus toxin, bleeding causes a drop in the anti- 

 toxin content in the blood, followed by a sharp rise in a short time. 



