LYSINS 153 



amboceptor; Bordet maintains that neither the specific cell (antigen) 

 of itself nor the substance sensibilitrice (amboceptor) of itself unites 

 with alexin (complement). When both are simultaneously present, 

 however, alexin is absorbed. In other words, amboceptors as such do 

 not exist, according to this view, and consequently complement can- 

 not be bound to the specific cell by a complementophile (haptophore) 

 group. 



Multiplicity of Amboceptors and Complement. The researches of 

 Nuttall and Buchner and of Moxter 1 have shown that fresh normal 

 serum possesses definite but limited bactericidal powers, apparently 

 not specific (for a variety of bacteria may be destroyed) which are 

 destroyed by an exposure of thirty minutes to 55 C. Furthermore, 

 the "inactivated" serum appears to regain its original bactericidal 

 value for various organisms when it is mixed with a relatively small 

 amount of normal serum. In other words, normal serum and specific 

 immune serum (unheated) alike appear to depend upon thermostabile 

 amboceptor and thermolabile complement for their bacteriolytic and 

 hemolytic activities. They differ in the highly specific potency of 

 the immune serum for its homologous cell. Ehrlich and Morgenroth 2 

 believe that the normal or natural cytolytic activities of sera depend 

 upon a multiplicity of specific amboceptors, each for its specific red 

 blood cell or other cell, and Pfeiffer 3 has made similar observations 

 for the normal bactericidal powers of blood. Ehrlich and Morgen- 

 roth have attempted to demonstrate a multiplicity of complements in 

 normal sera also; heated normal sera injected into normal animals 

 are claimed by the Ehrlich school to give rise to anticomplementoids, 

 the supposition being that the heat has destroyed the ergophore 

 group of complement but not its combining group, giving rise to a 

 " complementoid," precisely as a toxin which has lost its toxophore 

 group becomes a toxoid. There appears to be no theoretical limit 

 to the anti- and anti-antibodies which may thus be produced by 

 various increasingly complicated investigations. Bordet and Gay 4 

 deny the multiplicity of complement. 



Fixation of Complement. Bordet and Gengou, 5 in a series of experi- 

 ments, brought forth experimental evidence of the unity of com- 

 plement and, incidentally, developed a method of investigation now 



1 Loc. cit. 2 Loc. cit. 



3 Harben Lecture, Jour. Royal Inst. Public Health, 1909, xvii, 385. 



4 Collected Studies in Immunity by Bordet and his associates (translated by Gay, 

 1909). 



6 Ann. Inst. Past., 1901, xv. 



