ANTITOXINS 19 



receptors of the central nervous system. Other 

 experiments, which we will not reproduce here, 

 have shown us unquestionably that the action of 

 the antitoxins depends on the fact that this com- 

 bines with the haptophore group of the poison and 

 so satisfies the latter's affinity. Ehrlich, therefore, 

 concluded that the antitoxin is nothing else than 

 the side chains or receptors which are given off by 

 the cells and thrust into the circulation. The way 

 in which these side chains or receptors are thrust 

 off as a result of the immunizing process, Ehrlich 

 explains by means of Weigerfs Overproduction 

 Theory. 



At the meeting of German Naturalists and 

 Physicians held at Frankfurt in 1896, Weigert 1 in 

 discussing regeneration, advanced an hypothesis the 

 essential features of which are that physiological 

 structure and function depend upon the equilibrium 

 of the tissues maintained by virtue of mutual 

 restraint between their component cells ; that destruc- 

 tion of a single integer or group of integers of a 

 tissue or a cell removes a corresponding amount of 

 restraint at the point injured, and therefore destroys 

 equilibrium and permits of the abnormal exhibi- 

 tion of bioplastic energies on the part of the remain- 

 ing uninjured components, which activity may be 

 viewed as a compensating hyperplasia; that hyper- 



1 Weigert, Verhandlungen der Ges. deutscher Naturforscher 

 und Aerzte, 1896. 



