284 COLLECTED STUDIES IN IMMUNITY. 



goats, are injected with blood-cells of a different species, say 

 the amboceptors developed will all be identical. 



2. Haemolysis of foreign species of blood by normal sera is due 

 exclusively to the presence of a single, simple alexin, and not to a 

 complex hsemolysin consisting of amboceptor and complement. 



The thorough studies of Ehrlich and Morgenroth positively prove 

 the incorrectness of the first assumption. Above all, these investi- 

 gations showed that that body in a haemolytic immune serum, which 

 we term the amboceptor, can, in one and the same animal, be shown 

 experimentally to be made up of a host of different kinds of amboceptors^ 

 Furthermore, by means of combining experiments, of experiments 

 with an artificially produced antiamboceptor, and by studies on the 

 complementibility of amboceptors of different animal species it was 

 shown that amboceptors directed against the same species of blood, 

 which are obtained from different animal species, differ not only in 

 their complementophile group but also in their cytophile group. 



Besredka, who only learned of this study after the completion of 

 his own, regrets that "etant donne la complexite de plus en plus 

 grande de la question, de ne pas pouvoir suivre ici les auteurs dans 

 leur argumentations." It would be deplorable if the principle should 

 gain ground that the results of other workers can simply be ignored 

 on the plea that the verification of the experimental evidence is- 

 rather difficult owing to its complexity. Finally, the diversity of the 

 amboceptors has alread}^ been established by the studies on isolysins. 1 

 In this it was shown that even with twelve goats treated with goat 

 blood, twelve different isolysins are to be distinguished, i.e., twelve 

 amboceptor complexes against the same species of blood. 



This large number of amboceptors fitting one blood-cell corre- 

 sponds to a like condition of the blood-cell's receptors. These must 

 be extraordinarily manifold, because, besides the receptors which 

 anchor the amboceptors, there are present the most varied receptors 

 for the numerous simple haemolysins and haemagglutinins. This view, 

 enunciated in detail by Ehrlich, 2 has recently been confirmed by 

 the experiments of Landsteiner and Sturli. 3 These authors showed 

 that blood-cells which have been completely saturated with the 



1 Ehrlich and Morgenroth. (See page 88.) 



'Ehrlich, Nothnagels Spec. Pathol. u. Therapie, Vol. VIII, 1901. 

 3 Landsteiner and Sturli, Uber die Haemagglutinine normaler Sera. Wiener 

 klin. Wochensch. 1902, No. 2. 



