138 PROPERTIES OF ANTI-SERUM TO SERUM 



the complement to unite with the first combination and then 

 the presence of free complement is tested for by its hsemolytic 

 effect. 



1. PHENOMENA OF DEVIATION OF COMPLEMENT 



The following may be taken as a typical example of a 

 deviation experiment : 



Anti-serum, rabbit v. ox, 0-05 c.c. to each tube. 

 Serum of ox 55 C., 1 0-01 - 0-000,001 c.c. 

 Deviation of guinea-pig's complement. 



Test for complement = 1 c.c. suspension of ox corpuscles + immune- 

 body. Minimum haemolytic dose of complement = 0-01 c.c. 



TABLE 1 



Anti- Ox-serum Amounts of complement 

 serum 55 C. . ^ 



c.c. c.c. 0-01 0-02 0-03 0-04 0-05 0-06 c.c. 



0-05 



0-05 0-000,001 



0-05 0-000,01 



0-05 0-000,1 



0-05 0-001 



0-05 0-01 



complete complete complete complete complete 





f almost complete complete complete complete -S 



complete 

 trace f just complete complete complete] 







>> 

 comlete lg 



f nearly complete complete 



complete 

 00 slight trace 



trace 

 000000 



The amount of lysis indicated in this and other tables is 

 of course due to the amount of complement left free after 

 contact with the serum and its anti-serum for one and a half 

 hours at 37 C. The results of this experiment are graphi- 

 cally represented in the accompanying figure (Fig. 1, p. 139). 



It will be seen from the amounts of the resulting lysis 

 given in the table that without any of the ox's serum 0-01 c.c. 

 of complement gives /o lysis of the added corpuscles, whilst the 

 addition of 0-000,001 c.c. of ox serum reduces the lysis to T ^ ; 

 that is, this amount of serum in combination with the anti- 

 serum has deviated about a third of a dose of complement. 



1 In each case the serum used is heated to 55 C. for an hour at least, 

 to destroy the complement naturally present. 



