220 CHEMISTh'Y OF THE IMMUMTY REACTIOXS 



end products (v. Krogli).^^ jNIany of the effects of hemolytic ambo- 

 ceptors can be duplicated with silicic acid ; ^^ and a dye, brilliant 

 green, may in minute quantities sensitize corpuscles so that they are 

 hemolyzed by very small amounts of normal serum, or by lecithin.^'^^ 



The amboceptors of nonnall.y hemolytic serum seem to be no differ- 

 ent from those in immune serum, and amboceptors of one animal can 

 combine with complement furnished by the serum of an entirely dif- 

 ferent animal. It is tlie amboceptor alone that gives the specific na- 

 ture to the reaction, and, as is the case with all other innnunizations, 

 it is very diificult to secure antibodies by immunizing an animal with 

 blood from another animal of its own species, isohemolysins. The 

 place of origin of hemolysins is unknown, as with other antibodies, 

 but that it is not in the blood seems to have been established conclu- 

 sively by Hektoen ajid Carlson.^" Immune hemolysins cannot pass 

 from the mother to the fetus before birth, but they can be trans- 

 mitted through the colostrum (Famulener).^^ 



Although Ehrlicli held that the union between cell and amboceptor 

 is purely chemical and follows ordinary chemical laws, especially the 

 law of multiple proportions, Bordet and other French observers have 

 claimed that the union between amboceptor and corpuscle is physical 

 and not chemical.^* Probably the union is with the stroma rather 

 than with the hemoglobin, and the result of the union is to render the 

 stroma permeable to the hemoglobin, or to separate the bonds that 

 unite the hemoglobin to the stroma.^^ There are grounds for believ- 

 ing that the amboceptor not only binds the complement, but that it 

 also produces changes in the corpuscles (^luir). Mathes *° contends 

 that red corpuscles cannot be dissolved by hemolytic serum or by pan- 

 creatic juice until after they have been killed ; as heated serum does 

 not kill them, this is presumably done by the complement. Corpuscles 

 that have been killed can then be dissolved in their own serum. 

 Levene *^ tried to produce hemolytic serums hy immunizing with dif- 



^34Biochcm. Zeit., 1909 (22), 132. 



35 Landstoinor and Kock. Zeit. Immiuiitiit., 1912 (14), 14. 



35a Browninij and INIackio, Zeit. Tminunitat., 1914 (21), 422. 



30 .Tour. Jnfpft. Dis., 1910 (7), 319. 



^T Thid., 1912 (10), 332. 



38 Ban?,' and Forssmann (Hofmeister'a Boitr., 1906 (8), 23S) suofgcst that the 

 amboceptor merely rendei's the corpuscle permeable for tlie comph'ment, perhaps 

 throuffh action on the lij)oid meml)rane; the complement then acts directly upon 

 some constituent of the corpuscle, witliout the amboceptor actinir as a combining 

 substance in any way. They found that the substance in blood which stimulates 

 the antibody formation in the case of hemolysin formation, is chemically soparabl.> 

 from the substance in blood whicli unites with these antibodies; tlierefore. they 

 conclude, tlie "recejitors" of cells are iiot identical with tlH> antibodies. (See con- 

 troversy with l*]lirlich in Miinch. med. Woch., Vols. oG and 57.) 



3!> Corpuscles treated with f)smic acid will unite with hemolysins of diverse 

 oripin, but when used for immunizinfi they engender no hemolysins (Coca: also 

 V. Szily, Zeit. Imminiitiit., 1909 (3). 451). ITeatinfr corpuscle stroma alters 

 frreatlv the reactivity (Landsteiner and Praselv, ihid., 1912 (13), 403). 



•to Miinch. med. Woch., 1902 (49), 8. 



41 Jour. Med. Research, 1904 (12), 191. 



