34 LECTURES ON IMMUNITY 



the same manner. In this category belong the immune- 

 bodies as well as their compound with alexins, which, as 

 will be seen later on, in their absorption behave nearly in 

 the same manner as agglutinins. Bordet J showed that a 

 given quantity of erythrocytes added to a certain quantity 

 of blood-haemolysin gave a greater haemolysis if added 

 simultaneously, than if it was added in two portions, the 

 one after the other. 



That even in this case the process is a reversible one, 

 is shown by an experiment of Morgenroth. 2 He added 

 erythrocytes, which had absorbed immune-body, to other 

 unprepared erythrocytes and mixed the suspension of these 

 with alexin. Not only the originally prepared erythrocytes, 

 but also the others, became haemolysed, which shows that 

 a part of the immune-body had left the prepared erythro- 

 cytes and diffused through the surrounding liquid to the 

 unprepared ones. This experiment would not succeed if 

 a sufficient time (about one hour) was not allotted to the 

 diffusion process before the alexin was added. Similar 

 experiments with analogous results were performed by 

 Joos 3 with typhoid-bacilli and their agglutinin. 



Quite recently Morgenroth 4 has done some experiments 

 with cobralysin which indicate in a very conclusive man- 

 ner that this poison is not destroyed but only bound by its 

 antitoxin. He added so much antitoxin to the cobra- 

 poison, that its action was wholly neutralised and a little 

 over. After seven days he added to 5 c.c. of the mixture 



1 Bordet : Ann de VInst. Pasteur, 14. No. 5 (1900). 

 2 Morgenroth: Munch med. Wochenschrift^Q, 2 (1903). 

 8 Joos: Zeitschr. f. Hygiene, 40. 203 (1902); compare Eisenberg: Cen- 

 tralbl.f. Bakteriologie, 34. 261, 268 (1903). 



4 Morgenroth: BerL klin. Wochenschrift, No. 50 (1905). 



