ANAPHYLACTIN (ALLERGIN) 589 



protective ferments to a. separate chapter (Chapter XV) , and have not 

 considered it under the general head of the cytolysins, it is to be 

 remembered that the ferments possess many of the properties of lytic 

 amboceptors, and they may be identical with them although apparently 

 different owing to the application of chemical methods, especially by 

 Abderhalden, in their study. 



Most observers regard the anaphylactic antibody, toxogen or allergin, 

 as an amboceptor and a complement. The actual antibody then must 

 be considered as an immune albuminolysin, for complement is present 

 in normal serum, and is not necessarily increased during the process of 

 sensitization. As in other lytic processes, however, complement or 

 alexin is of great importance, constituting, as it does, the actual lytic 

 agent, after the antigen, or, in this instance, the anaphylactogen of the 

 second injection, has been sensitized by the amboceptor. Some ob- 

 servers believe that the complement is decreased during anaphylaxis, 

 presumably being used up in effecting lysis of the protein. Friedmann 

 claims that in allergy to red corpuscles there is a close parallelism between 

 the anaphylactic bodies and the hemolytic amboceptor. 



With the more recent work of Abderhalden on protective ferments 

 and the development of a dialysis and optical method of detecting the 

 products of protein cleavage, it was hoped that the true and exact nature 

 of anaphylaxis would finally be established. It would appear possible 

 to determine the presence, in the blood-serum of sensitized animals, of 

 specific proteolytic ferments capable of demonstrating their presence 

 in vitro, and to show the products of protein cleavage just after anaphy- 

 lactic shock and a corresponding decrease or total absence of the fer- 

 ments as a result of their participation in the albuminolysis. Indeed, 

 Abderhalden 1 has recently claimed that all these conditions have been 

 found to exist: (1) The serums from 12 guinea-pigs sensitized to egg- 

 albumen, when mixed with antigen, showed digestive power by both 

 optic and dialysis (biuret) methods; (2) similar serums, dialyzed alone, 

 showed digestive products in only one of six serums tested : (3) the serum 

 of six guinea-pigs taken at intervals of from five minutes, to one and one- 

 half hours after the second injection (egg-albumen) and dialyzed, gave 

 negative results after from five and fifteen minutes, whereas four taken 

 after thirty, forty-five, sixty, and ninety minutes respectively were 

 positive. In each test the serum (10 c.c.) was dialyzed against distilled 

 water for sixteen hours at 37 C., and the presence of the products of 

 digestion determined by the biuret reaction. In this manner the final 

 1 Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem., 1912, 82, 109. 



