480 J. M. HAMILL. 



The presence, in Ascaris, of an antibody which is aritikinasic in 

 character would be a considerable argument in favour of Delezenne's 

 view. It becomes of importance, therefore, to obtain definite evidence 

 as to the precise nature of the antibody, whether it is antikinasic or 

 merely antitryptic in action. 



I propose, then, in this paper, first of all to inquire into the nature 

 and mode of action of the antibody in the juices of intestinal worms, 

 and then to pass on to a consideration of some of its properties. 



Methods. Preparation of worm extract. Worms (Ascaris), obtained 

 from the intestinal tracts of horses, were washed and then ground up as 

 thoroughly as possible with sand. The pasty mass thus obtained was 

 covered with chloroform water, well shaken, and allowed to stand for 

 36 hours. The liquid portion was then strained off through muslin, 

 filtered through paper, and finally passed through a Berkfeld filter. In 

 this way a clear yellowish aqueous extract of worms was obtained quite 

 free from any cells. A little toluol was added to guard against 

 putrefaction. The extract so prepared will retain its activity with but 

 little impairment for weeks, or even months. 



The trypsin solutions were made by treating 3 grams of pancreatin 

 (" Rhenania") with 100 G.C. of '2 / sodium carbonate solution and filtering. 

 The solutions were always prepared as required and used at once. 



In order to measure the proteolytic activities of my solutions I used 

 a modification of Mett's tubes employed by Fermi in which the 

 albumin is replaced by 10% gelatine containing 1 / sodium fluoride as 

 a preservative. The addition of a little methyl violet to the gelatine 

 facilitates the measurement of the amount digested at the end of the 

 experiment. This method, although not perfect, gives results quite 

 sufficiently accurate for an investigation of this character, and is much 

 superior to Dastre and Stassano's cubes of albumin and Weinland's 

 flocks of fibrin. Its use, however, is restricted to temperatures in the 

 neighbourhood of 15 C. 



Enterokinase solutions and pancreatic juice were obtained from dogs 

 in the way already described in my previous paper (7) . 



I. THE MODE OF ACTION OF THE ANTIBODY. 



Is the antibody antitryptic? In order to determine this the following 

 mixtures were made : 



