PARENTERAL DIGESTION 65 



others have confirmed and amplified this work 

 and it has been shown that when the unsatu- 

 rated fatty acids are removed from blood se- 

 rum by extraction with chloroform or ether, it 

 becomes highly poisonous even for the species 

 from which it was derived. Whether Jobling is 

 right in his contention that the fatty acids con- 

 stitute the antibody is still to be determined. It 

 is possible that the extraction of blood serum 

 with chloroform may have some effect upon the 

 equilibrium in its protein constituents. 



Friedberger found that the blood serum of 

 the guinea-pig when incubated with bacterial 

 cell substance becomes poisonous. He ex- 

 plained this on the assumption that the pro- 

 teases of the serum digest the bacterial cells 

 with the formation of a poison which he calls 

 anaphylatoxin. Later it was shown that the 

 guinea-pig serum when incubated with agar or 

 starch becomes poisonous. From these find- 

 ings it was suspected that bacillary substances, 

 agar and starch, act upon guinea-pigs by ab- 

 sorption of the antibodies. In this way the pro- 

 teases in the serum are relieved of the presence 

 of their antibodies and digest the proteins in 

 the serum. In other words, the matrix of the 

 poison consists of the proteins in the serum 

 and not of the bacillary cell substance. 



