XXXIII. THE RECEPTOR APPARATUS OF THE RED 



BLOOD-CELLS. 1 



By Professor Dr. P. EHRLICH. 



WE know of a large number of agents which are able to injure 

 the red blood-cells or kill them. In a study entitled " Zur Physiologic 

 und Pathologic der rothen Blutscheiben " (Charite Annalen, Vol. 10) 

 I have shown that solution of red blood-cells is brought about by 

 all agencies (mechanical, chemical, or thermic) which kill proto- 

 plasm. At that time I had already expressed the hypothesis that 

 the erythrocytes possessed a peculiar protoplasm, the discoplasma, 

 whose chief function consists in preventing the escape of the haemo- 

 globin into the blood plasma. If the discoplasma is killed, the haemo- 

 globin will immediately diffuse, i.e., the blood becomes laky. This 

 process is in no way connected with conditions of osmotic tension, 

 for in many blood poisons, such as digitoxin, veratrin, solan in, cor- 

 rosive sublimate, etc., this destruction takes place in very high dilu- 

 tions which hardly change the molecular concentration at all. 



The ordinary blood poisons, and they are very numerous (saponin 

 bodies, helvellic acid, aldehydes, polyphenols, etc.), are chemically 

 clearly defined substances; they exert their deleterious action in 

 exact accordance with the principles which we have already studied 

 in connection with the distribution of pharmacological substances, 

 such as alkaloids, etc. Recently, however, we have come to know 

 another group of blood poisons which exert their injurious action 

 after the manner of toxins, i.e., through the agency of special hapto- 

 phore groups which fit into suitable receptors. All of these sub- 

 stances are highly complex derivatives of living animal or vegetable 



1 Reprint from: Schlussbetrachtungen ; Erkrankungen des Blutes; Noth- 

 nagel's Specielle Pathologic und Therapie, Vol. VIII, Vienna, 1901. 



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