104 IMMUNITY AND ANAPHYLAXIS 



way: Every organism possesses in its fluids certain sub- 

 stances (normal antibodies) in a sufficient quantity to 

 rapidly transform by a single operation any quantity of 

 non-antigenic colloids into crystalloid solutions which can 

 be assimilated or eliminated and by the same procedure 

 which permits it to digest these in its own tissues. 



Every organism can produce, as a result of a suitable 

 preparation, a specific antibody by which every antigenic 

 colloid can be transformed into a crystalloid but here the 

 process of this transformation may take place in one of 

 two different ways, either as a single reaction in the case of 

 non-antigenic colloids (toxins, antitoxins) or by two suc- 

 cessive reactions, of which the first consists of the formation 

 of a coagulum and the second of the dissolution of this 

 coagulum (all the other albumins and colloidal foreign 

 antigens) . 



From what we know of the transformation of the arseno- 

 benzenes, we may assume that in the case of non-antigenic 

 colloids as in the case of toxins, the antibody, whether normal 

 or in excess, acts especially upon the ties which bind the 

 amines into colloidal granules to neutralize these ties. In 

 the case of antigenic colloids the antibody in excess forms 

 first new combinations with the molecules of these antigens 

 by rearranging the granules among themselves and thus 

 causing the formation of precipitates or coagula which ren- 

 der the subsequent liberation of molecules slower and more 

 difficult. 



ANTIBODY. 



It remains for us to investigate the physicochemical 

 nature of antibodies and we must recognize that this is the 

 least known element of the problem. We know that the 

 production of antibody in excess is the result of a vital 

 reaction of the cell because even if a dead cell or a dead tissue 

 could fix a certain quantity of antigen in the same way and 

 by the same affinity as living tissue it would be impossible 

 for it to reproduce and multiply this fixation substance 

 which in the living organism becomes the antibody in excess. 

 This explains why the production of antibody is necessarily 



