IIIJUOLYSIS 217 



All these a^'oiits seem to effect lieiiiolysis hif acliiKj on the stroma, 

 for when the stroma of corpuscles hardened in formalin has its leci- 

 thin and cholesterol removed with ether, saponin, a powerfully hemo- 

 lytic substance, seems to have no effect. The action of saponin and 

 of many other hemolytic agents can be prevented by the presence of 

 cholesterol in excess, sug<^esting that it is this constituent of the 

 stroma that is affected.-i^ By studying heraol3^sis under dark field 

 illumination, Dietrich -- found that in water hemolysis a diffusion of 

 hemoglobin takes place through the corpuscular substance, which is 

 not visibly altered; in serum hemolysis there is first a precipitate 

 formed in the outer layer, which swells. There is no evidence that the 

 erythrofeytes contain proteolytic enzymes of their own that might dis- 

 integrate them.--^ 



The fact that clioloroform, ether, bile salts, soaps, and amyl alcohol 

 will cause laking is probably intimately connected with the fact that 

 lecithin and cholesterol, important constituents of the stroma, are 

 both soluble in these substances.-^ Nearly all the non-specific hemo- 

 lytic agents are inhibited to greater or less degree by the senim, in 

 which inhibition both the proteins and cholesterol are concerned.-* 

 Cholesterol also influences many other immunity reactions, inhibit- 

 ing some and stimulating others."^ The resistance of the corpuscles 

 to hemolysis by various agents differs greatly in disease, although 

 fairly constant in normal blood, the differences being caused in some 

 cases by changes in the permeability of the corpuscles, and sometimes 

 by changes in the environment of the corpuscle or the presence of 

 protective substances in either the corpuscle or the plasma. 



Arseniuretted hydrogen, when inhaled, causes intravascular hemo- 

 l3'sis, and there are many other drugs and chemicals with the same 

 property, among which may be mentioned nitrobenzol, nitroglycerin 

 and the nitrites, guaiacol, pyrogallol, acetanilid, and numerous ani- 



Organic Substances. — (a) Impermeable for sugars: namely, caiic-sugar, dex- 

 trose, lactose, also arabit and mannit. (h) Permcalilc for alcoliols, in inverse 

 proportion to the number of livdroxyl groups that they contain; also for alde- 

 hydes (except paraldehyde), ketones, etliers, esters, antipyrin, amides, urea, 

 urethan, bile acids and their salts, (c) Slightly permeable for neutral amino- 

 acids (glycocoll, asparagin, etc.). 



Inorganic substances, not including the salts of the fixed alkalies, (r/) Com- 

 pletely impermeable for the cations C'a, Sr, Ba, Mg. (b) Permeable for XH, ions, 

 for free acids and alkalies. 



21 Ransom, Deut. mcd. Woch., 1901 (27), 104; Kobert, "Sapoiiinsubstanzen."' 

 Stuttgart, 1904; Abderhalden and Le Count, Zeit. cxp. Path. u. TIht.. 1!)(1.-) (•_'). 

 199. Noguclii (Univ. of Penn. Med. Bull., 1902 (15), ?vll ) found hvithin 

 without this property. 



22 Verb. Deut. Path. Gesell., 1908 (12), 202. 

 22a Von Roques, Biocliem. Zeit., 1914 (64), 1. 



23 See Koeppe, Pfliiger's Arch., 1903 (99), 33; Peskind, Amor. .Tour. Plivs., 1904 

 (12), 184: Moore, Brit. Med. Jour., 1909 (ii), 684. 



24 See V. Eish^r, Zeit. exp. Path., 1906 (3), 296. 



25 Walbum, Zeit. Immunitiit., 1910 (7), 544; Dewev and Xuzum, Jour. Infect. 

 Dis., 1914 (15), 472. 



