1 68 LECTURES ON IMMUNITY 



tion of the action of bases, acids, and salts on erythrocytes 

 and of the haemolytic action of a lysin, namely, tetanoly- 

 sin, in the presence of its antilysin and of different 

 other so-called neutral substances, as salts and different 

 proteins. The tetanolysin was chosen because it shows 

 a great similarity in its neutralisation with that practically 

 most important of all poisons, namely, the diphtheria poison. 

 This investigation convinced us that a complete analogy 

 holds for the two phenomena of neutralisation, that of a 

 base, for instance, ammonia, and that of tetanolysin. 1 



If we add different bases, for instance, ammonia and 

 sodium hydrate, to red blood-corpuscles, we find that the 

 first traces of alkali are without any haemolytic effect on 

 the cells. This first ineffective quantity seems to be bound 

 by the blood-corpuscles rather strongly, since it is, within 

 the errors of observation, proportional to the quantity of 

 blood used, and the quantities of sodium hydrate and of 

 ammonia bound by the same quantity of blood-corpuscles 

 are chemically equivalent (cf. p. no). On the addition of 

 greater quantities of alkali a very weak haemolysis occurs ; 

 the fluid is only faint yellow. As the quantity of alkali 

 increases, the haemolysed quantity of the red blood-corpus- 

 cles increases very rapidly and often nearly proportion- 

 ally to the square of the unbound quantity of alkali. This 

 proceeds until the haemolysis is total, that is, until all the 

 red blood-corpuscles have given up their haemoglobin to 

 the surrounding medium. After this a further addition of 

 alkali produces no change in the quantity of haemolysis, 

 though the velocity of reaction is increased. The state- 



1 Arrhenius and Madsen : Festskrift, Copenhagen, No. 3, 1902 ; Zeitschr* 

 f.ph. a., 44. 7 (1903). 



