PROPERTIES OF H^EMOLYTIC SERA 



up multiple doses of immune-body, and thereafter multiple 

 doses of complement. The lysis in these cases thus repre- 

 sents a comparatively early stage in the union of the three 

 bodies concerned. Accordingly, in estimating the possible 

 combining amounts, we must make use of the absorption 

 method, that is, estimate the amount of immune-body 

 and of complement left free after a combining action has 

 occurred. This matter is of great importance in connexion 

 with the experiments detailed below, and supplies one of the 

 most useful methods in the investigation. 



In the action of a haemolytic serum there results some 

 damage to the envelope of the corpuscle, which allows 

 a diffusion of haemoglobin. The corpuscle is, however, 

 not completely destroyed, as the stromata can still be seen 

 on microscopic examination after lysis. Even when multiple 

 doses of immune-body and of complement are used, the total 

 digestion of the red blood-corpuscle does not take place. 

 Bordet x showed that the action of a haemolytic serum differed 

 from that of ordinary laking agents (water, ether, and the 

 like), inasmuch as the osmotic properties of the corpuscles 

 seemed to be lost in the former case. As is well known, 

 if red corpuscles are laked with water, and then the solution 

 be made hypertonic, the stromata become contracted, just 

 as uninjured corpuscles become crenated, and on diluting 

 again with water they resume their original size. On the 

 contrary, after lysis by a haemolytic serum, these phenomena 

 are not met with, variations in the salt content of the 

 medium apparently having no effect upon the stromata 

 of the corpuscles. The action of the serum would thus 

 appear to be of the nature of a partial solution of the 

 envelope, leading to the formation of apertures sufficiently 

 large to prevent the osmotic phenomena. Beyond this 

 fact we know practically nothing with regard to the hsemo- 

 lytic effect. 



1 Bordet, Annal de Vlnst. Pasteur, XIV, 1900, p. 270. 



