COLLEGE OF DENTISTRY 



UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 



CHAPTER V 



EQUILIBRIA IN ABSORPTION PROCESSES 



THE most simple of all processes belonging to this 

 domain seems to be the absorption of agglutinin by the 

 corresponding bacteria. If we add an agglutinin to a sus- 

 pension of bacteria (whether living or dead makes little 

 difference), the bacteria clump together and fall to the 

 bottom of the container. If after the sedimentation of the 

 bacteria, we decant the supernatant fluid and again deter- 

 mine its agglutinating power, we find that it has decreased 

 in large measure. We conclude, therefore, that a large 

 fraction of the agglutinin has been absorbed by the bac- 

 teria. Eisenberg and Volk have studied this phenomenon 

 on a rather large scale. The two following tables give 

 their results with the serum of a horse that had been in- 

 jected with typhoid bacilli, and that of another horse that 

 had been injected with cholera vibrions. Different con- 

 centrations of these agglutinin-holding sera prepared by 

 dilution with physiological sodium chloride solution were 

 brought in contact with the same quantities of suspensions 

 of typhoid bacilli or of cholera vibrios. The quantity of 

 agglutinin added is given in the column headed T, the 

 quantity of agglutinin absorbed by the bacteria is found 

 under C\ the quantity remaining in the liquid is called 

 .# ob8 . Evidently B Q ^ -f- C=T. In the next column is 

 tabulated the figures for J3 c&}c . t calculated in a manner to be 

 indicated below. 



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