298 



Prof. R. Muir and Mr. C. H. Browning. [Nov. 10, 



spectrum the ordinary lines of oxygen and nitrogen are well seen. 

 The silicium lines 4089'! and 4116'4, denoted in the reproduction, are 

 shown in the top spectrum, but they are, entirely lacking in the air 

 spectrum at the bottom. It would be rejsft^jS^ble that these lines, if 

 really due to air, should not appear in the 'air spectrum itself. More- 

 over, the lines do not appear in the spurk spectra of any of the 

 chemical elements investigated other than silicium, although in all 

 these the ordinary air lines are always well shown. 



To sum up, the lines of Group IV have never been noted in any 

 Kensington spectra without being accompanied by silicium lines of 

 other groups, and they never appear unless silicium in some form or 

 other is used in the light source furnishing the spectrum. 



With regard to their identity with stellar lines, whatever their 

 true terrestrial origin may be, there is scarcely any doubt. They 

 agree exactly in wave-length with very strong lines in the spectra of 

 the belt stars of Orion, and with less conspicuous lines in many other 

 stellar spectra, for which no other satisfactory origin has been suggested. 



" On Chemical Combination and Toxic Action as exemplified in 

 Hsemolytic Sera."* By ROBERT MUIR, M.D., Professor of 

 Pathology, University of Glasgow, and CARL H. BROWNING, 

 M.B., Ch.B., Carnegie Research Fellow, University of Glasgow. 

 Communicated by Dr. C. J. MARTIN, F.R.S. Received 

 November 10, Read December 1, 1904. 



It is now well known that the action of a haemolytic serum depends 

 upon two substances, viz. : (a) the immune-body, which is developed 

 as the result of the injection of the red corpuscles of an animal of 

 different species, and (li) the complement, a labile substance which is 

 present in the serum of the normal animal, and which is not increased 

 as the result of such injection. Ehrlich has pointed out the similarity 

 in the constitution of complements and of various toxins, and our own 

 observations strongly support his views. We may, in the study of 

 haemolysis, consider the complement as a toxin, the red corpuscles 

 treated with the appropriate immune-body as the object on which the 

 toxin is to act, and the haemolysis as the indication of the toxic action. 

 Ehrlich regards the complement as consisting of two chief atom-groups, 

 the haptophore or combining group and the zymotoxic ; but in speaking 

 of the action of sera he does not always carry out this distinction 

 completely. For example, the efficiency of different complements as 

 tested by their hsemolytic or bacteriolytic effects is often taken as 

 * The expenses of this research were defrayed by a grant from the Carnegie 



