A.I TURE OF THE PROTECTIVE DEFEXCES OF THE BODY 165 



ments, from the group which exerts the ferment action, the zymophore 

 group. Both groups, haptophore and functional, are independent of 

 each other, and their separate presence can easily be demonstrated 

 because the functional group e. g., in poisonous toxins the toxophore 

 group is more readily destroyed by heat than the haptophore group. 

 Thus by heating a toxin for some time to 60 to 65 C. substances 

 will be obtained which are no longer poisonous, but which still possess 

 the binding, haptophore, group. In the case of toxins such substances 

 are called toxoids. Ehrlich further stated that the finer mechanism of 

 the formation of specific substances was this: that the haptophore 

 group was bound to the receptor of the living organism owing to a 

 specific affinity. As a result of this the receptor is lost to the living 

 organism, disposed of, and a biological law formulated by Weigert 



FIG. 67 



--E 



Graphic representation of receptors of the first and third orders and of complement as conceived 

 by Ehrlich: A, complement: B, intermediary or immune body; C, cell receptor; D, part of cell: 

 E, toxophorous group of toxin ; F, haptophorous group. 



now comes into action, the law of supercompensation; that is, the 

 organism seeks to replace this defect, but in doing so not merely replaces 

 the receptors in question, but, according to Weigert, produces more 

 of* them than were previously present (Fig. 68). The conditions are 

 somewhat like those seen in the callus after a fracture, in which the 

 organism likewise does not produce just the amount of bone previously 

 present; there is always an overproduction. 



In this way, Ehrlich says, such a large number of one type of receptors 

 are produced by the organism that these become too much for the 

 same; they are then thrust off into the blood, and these free receptors 

 circulating in the blood constitute the specific antibodies. Ehrlich 

 therefore believes that the specific antibodies in the serum are nothing 

 else than receptors for which the substance employed in immunization 





