534 COLLECTED STUDIES IN IMMUNITY 



laid down the dictum, " There is no dissociation by means of cold." 

 It seems not to have mattered to him that his statement is opposed 

 to even the most elementary principles of chemistry. 



As a matter of fact we have always paid due attention to disso- 

 ciation and to the reversibility of the reactions. I should like to 

 call Gruber's attention to the fact that the sentence: " In the union 

 of the amboceptors we are dealing with a reversible process " occurs 

 in one of Morgenroth's studies 2 from this Institute. Further than 

 this such questions do not affect the Side-chain Theory, as such. The 

 whole discussion is evidently designed to hide the fact that Gruber's 

 position is really based on my theory. 



So far as the mode of action of the toxins is concerned, 

 Gruber's standpoint and mine are essentially the same. Thus 

 Gruber states that: *' All poisons .must be 'anchored' by the 

 cells and the anchoring group of atoms is probably always different 

 from that group which gives the substance its toxicity." I spent 

 many years in establishing this view and it is now everywhere accepted 

 as axiomatic. I defy Gruber to show me the text-books of toxi- 

 cology in which, previous to my work, this conception appears, a 

 conception which dominates the laws of the distribution and action 

 of poisons. If he should again refer to S. FrankePs book 3 I can 

 only remark that while the account of my views is very admirable, 

 it is nothing more than a resume of the points which I had previously 

 developed. Perhaps I can even aid Gruber's memory and let him 

 speak for himself. A year before his declaration of war he spoke 

 of " the brilliant hypothesis of that genius Paul Ehrlich, the greatest 

 of living pathologists." In a little work 4 published at that time, 

 and quite enthusiastic over my theory he states: " According to 

 Ehrlich only such substances are poisons which unite chemically 

 with some constituent of the organism." And yet this same Gruber 

 to-day says: " These are merely new words for what has long been 

 known." 



I should not like to deprive the reader of hearing still another 



tains that ray view of the production of anticomplements, according to which 

 amboceptor and complement are firmly united, is absolutely incomprehensible. 



' Munch, med. Wochenschr. 1901, No. 48. 



'Ibid., 1903. 



' Die Arzneimittelsynthese, Berlin, 1901. 



* Max Gruber. Neuere Forschungen iiber erworbene Immunitat, Vienna, 

 1900. 



