A STUDY OF THE CONCENTRATION OF THE ANTI- 

 BODIES IN THE BODY FLUIDS OF NORMAL 

 AND IMMUNE ANIMALS.* 



FRANK C. BECHT AND JAMES R. GREEK. 

 (From the Hull Physiological Laboratory, The University of Chicago.) 



THE presence of antibodies of various kinds in serum has long 

 been known, and the concentration in that fluid has been carefully 

 studied. The presence of antibodies in the various other body 

 fluids has not been so carefully investigated, nor has sufficient allow- 

 ance been made for individual variations in animals of the same 

 species. While the authors were associated with Dr. Carlson in his 

 work on lymph formation, he suggested that a careful comparison 

 between the concentration of the antibodies in the various body fluids 

 of the same animal might be of considerable importance in determin- 

 ing the differences between the lymph and serum, and in that way 

 throw light on some of the problems of lymph formation, and possibly 

 also on the point of origin of antibodies. When the work was begun, 

 we intended to collect lymph from the different organs, but the 

 practical difficulties encountered in introducing cannulae into the 

 delicate lymphatics of such organs as the spleen was so great, that 

 the project was temporarily abandoned, and the work has been con- 

 fined to a comparison between serum, lymph from the cervical lym- 

 phatics, lymph from the thoracic duct, pericardial fluid, cerebrospinal 

 fluid, and aqueous humor. Thus far work has been done on the 

 hemolysins, hemagglutinins, agglutinins for the typhoid bacillus, 

 the protein precipitins, and the opsonins, bacterial and erythrocytic. 

 No work has yet been undertaken on the bacteriolysins. We have 

 not enough data to enable us to draw any broad conclusions, and we 

 will content ourselves with presenting what we believe to be the facts 

 under the various conditions studied. 



Literature. The first studies that we were able to find on the relative concentra- 

 tion of antibodies in the various body fluids were those of Pegano,36 w ho found the 

 concentration of hemolysins of the thoracic lymph in dogs lower than that of the serum. 

 Falloise ll and later Batelli* confirmed the work of Pegano. Hughes and Carlson- 8 

 working on normal dogs, horses, and cats found the concentration of hemolysins for 



* Received for publication November 9, 1909. 



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