240 LECTURES ON IMMUNITY 



chief part of which time the temperature was 2 C. The 

 haemoglobin that had passed out in the last twenty-four 

 hours had not had time to diffuse throughout the liquid, 

 but remained in the lowest strongly coloured stratum. 

 These observations suggest strongly that the haemolytic 

 substance was absorbed by the erythrocytes. The quantity, 

 1.5, of lecithin must in some manner be bound by a foreign 

 substance in the blood suspension, so that it is not available 

 for the cobra-poison. 



In this case we cannot see from the formula that cobra- 

 poison and lecithin are consumed for the formation of the 

 cobra-lecithid. This must therefore be dissociated in solu- 

 tion to an extremely high degree, and the least quantities 

 of it must be sufficient to produce haemolytic actions. But 

 precisely for this case Kyes has made it probable that a 

 compound cobra-lecithid is formed, that even in very 

 small quantities produces haemolysis. 1 



The power f for the quantity of lecithin in the last 

 formula is the same which is sometimes found for the 

 immune-body, but never for the alexin. This seems to in- 

 dicate that the lecithin plays the same r61e as the immune- 

 body in the formation of the haemolysin, and that the 

 cobra-poison corresponds to the alexin. This opinion 

 seems corroborated by the fact that the alexin is regarded 

 as the properly poisonous substance of the two, and it 

 seems more natural to suppose that the cobra-poison is the 

 carrier of the poisonous properties, than that the innocuous 

 lecithin acts haemolytically. 



Quite recently there has been a vivid discussion, if 

 lecithin exerts an influence on the haemolytic action of a 



1 Preston Kyes: Berl. klin. Wochenschrift, Nos. 42 and 43 (1903). 



