tfA CTERIOL YSINS A ND H^EMOL YSINS 109 



blood. Bordet, on the other hand, assuming that 

 the immune body plays the role of mordant believes 

 that there is but one single complement in the serum. 

 According to him this complement is able to dis- 

 solve blood cells as well as bacteria, after these 

 cells have been sensitized by their specific immune 

 body. Each of these authors supports his claims by 

 means of ingenious experiments, for the details of 

 which, however, we must refer to the original articles, 

 as they require the knowledge of a specialist for 

 their comprehension, one, however, will be given 

 here because of its importance. 



Bordet and Gengou in trying to prove that there 

 is no basis for the belief in the multiplicity of com- 

 plement endeavored to show that complement con- 

 sisted of but a single substance. They reasoned as 

 follows : If it could be shown that cholera bacilli 

 treated with cholera immune serum absorbed the 

 same complement as was absorbed by plague, 

 bacilli plus plague anti-serum and that these, in 

 turn, absorbed the same complement as blood cells 

 treated with their specific haemolysin absorbed, then 

 there would be no grounds for assuming the pres- 

 ence of more than one complement. They devised 

 the following test to prove that their reasoning was 

 borne out by the facts. 



The Bordet-Gengou Phenomena. Bordet 1 sen- 

 sitized blood corpuscles with appropriate ambo- 



1 Bordet and Gengou, Annal. de 1'Inst. Past., Vol. 18, 1901. 



