AGGLUTINATION AND DISSOLUTION. 185 



III. The injection of an antihematic serum in a normal animal 

 of the same species that furnished the serum causes the appearance 

 of a similar property in the serum of the treated animal. The 

 occurrence of this hemolytic property should be explained as we 

 explained in 1895 the genesis of a bactericidal property in the serum 

 of animals treated with cholera serum. In other words, this anti- 

 hematic property occurs as the result of a meeting in the animal 

 body of the characteristic substance of active serum with the 

 alexin which the recipient possessed before injection. 



IV. The specific antihematic substances characteristic of active 

 serum resist heating to 55 degrees and combine energetically with 

 the corpuscles they act on. Washing does not remove from cor- 

 puscles their agglutination or their sensitization to alexin acquired 

 by contact with specific serum. In this respect the analogy to 

 bacteria and their specific sera also holds. 



V. Alexins from different animal species although very similar 

 in their action on a given bacterium show distinct differences in 

 their action on corpuscles. The sensitization of given corpuscles 

 to the action of the alexins of certain animal species does not neces- 

 sarily imply that these corpuscles are equally destroyed by all 

 alexins. 



VI. Antihematic sera have also a distinct antitoxic property; 

 they protect their own corpuscles against agglutination and dis- 

 solution by the normal serum used in injecting the animals that 

 have produced the active serum. 



VII. There is a close analogy between the active substances 

 of specific sera and similar properties that occur in normal sera in 

 respect to the effect of heat; there is also an analogy between the 

 substances affecting bacteria and those affecting red blood cor- 

 puscles in this respect. Heating to from 60 to 70 degrees weakens 

 both the agglutinating and the sensitizing property. 



VIII. Destruction by alexin may take place in non-agglutinated 

 corpuscles. The fact that corpuscles are clumped by serum does 

 not necessarily imply that they are sensitized to the action of 

 alexins. 



