244 LECTURES ON IMMUNITY 



concentrations is not wholly absorbed by the erythrocytes, 

 and therefore gives a compound with the alexin, even out- 

 side the erythrocytes. Thereby we explain the seeming 

 anomaly that a less degree of haemolysis may be pro- 

 duced by a greater quantity of immune-body (cf. p. 224). 

 It is evident that equations like those given above are not 

 able to reproduce such a phenomenon. The same effect 

 may even exert a diminishing influence, though to a 

 lesser degree, on the action of the immune-body. It would 

 therefore be conceivable that this effect is responsible for 

 the exponent f for the quantity of the immune-body ; and 

 that in reality, if this disturbing effect did not occur, the 

 first power of the said quantity would result from the 

 experiments. This opinion seems confirmed by the fact 

 that the exponent f occurs precisely for the combination of 

 immune-body from the rabbit treated with ox erythrocytes 

 and alexin from guinea-pigs, which in another series of 

 experiments with different preparations gave a very 

 pronounced diversion of the alexin. But this explanation 

 is not applicable to the action of lecithin in the experi- 

 ments with cobra-lecithid. 



My experiments show that even in this case a remark- 

 able regularity governs the binding of immune-body and 

 alexin. Therefore it has not been necessary for me to 

 make use of a large number of different methods of ex- 

 planation, as Morgenroth and Sachs did. To explain the 

 results of their measurements they suppose that the im- 

 mune-body is bound to the erythrocytes in different 

 manners, that the affinity of immune-body for alexin is 

 altered to different degrees by the influence of the erythro- 

 cytes, and that the immunised sera contain a great number 



