CAUSES OF FORMATION OF ANTIBODIES 155 



The causes of the differences in the reactions caused in 

 the organism by the different antigens immunity without 

 anaphylactic shock, immunity accompanied by anaphy- 

 lactic shock, or anaphylaxis alone as well as the action of the 

 anaphylatoxins must be looked for, in the different stages 

 of albumin disintegration on the one hand, in the nature and 

 physicochemical or physiological properties of antibodies 

 on the other. 



All that we know today is that the antigens which cause 

 the formation of precipitating antibodies and therefore pre- 

 dispose the organism to anaphylactic shock, have a total of 

 properties characteristic of the albumins (animal fluids and 

 formed elements, vegetable albumins, bacterial bodies); 

 whereas antibodies produced by non-albuminous antigens 

 (toxins) do not precipitate antigens and do not predispose 

 to anaphylactic shock. 



It has so far been impossible to obtain an antibody in a 

 pure state and to separate from it the albuminoid substances 

 of the serum which are not antibodies (and these always 

 exist, as can easily be recognized by analyzing the liquid 

 which floats above the precipitate formed in a mixture of a 

 serum-antibody with its antigen); nevertheless, since there 

 are albumin-antigens and peptone-antigens or polypeptides, 

 it can be assumed that the differences between antibodies are 

 of the same order as the differences between pepsin and 

 kinase or erepsin. 



Pepsin transforms liquid albumin into peptones by first 

 precipitating them; kinase and erepsin transform peptones 

 into amino-acids without precipitation. 



We may therefore conclude that : 



1 . The cause of the production of antibodies in excess, and 

 at the same time, of the state of immunity-anaphylaxis, is 

 the obligation on the part of the organism to digest, by means 

 of its cells, the antigens which have penetrated to its interior. 



2. The excess antibody found in the serum and in the 

 fluids is a substance which contributes to this digestion. 



3. Salts and crystalloids are not antigens because they are 

 assimilated or eliminated directly without previous digestion 

 or disintegration. 



