ANTIFERMENTS 261 



tinct antibodies and not to be classed with the cytolytic amboceptors 

 or cytolysins of Ehrlich. 



That the substrat in the pregnancy test is a boiled tissue would seem 

 to impair the specificity of the reaction, and, indeed, certain physical 

 factors, as the mechanical state of division of the substrat and its facility 

 for acting as an absorbent in a purely mechanical capacity, likewise 

 appear to be factors in the reaction on the basis of numerous investi- 

 gations showing that loose areolar placental tissue is frequently digested 

 by normal sera and various pathologic sera irrespective of pregnancy, 

 whereas digestion of a firm and compact tissue as that of malignant 

 tumors is much less constant. In this connection the work of de Waele 1 

 has a bearing, inasmuch as he found that any agent which would cause 

 an alteration of the physical state of the serum globulins would cause 

 an intense Abderhalden reaction, concluding that the reaction depended 

 upon a globulinolysis having an origin in physical processes probably 

 analogous to the precipitin reaction. 



While immunologic as well as chemical and physical reactions are 

 more or less dependent upon quantitative factors, recent investigations 

 by Flatow 2 and Herzfeld, 3 Plaut, 4 and others show that while specific 

 results may be obtained by proper manipulation of the material, non- 

 specific results in either a negative or positive reaction may be obtained 

 with practically any serum, however well controlled, with the same 

 material. These investigations are significant not so much because of 

 quantitative factors alone as they are by reason of indicating that the 

 pregnancy reaction is dependent upon the principles of mechanical 

 absorption on the part of the substrat of something from the serum 

 followed by a digestive process, rather than upon the simple digestion 

 of a specific substrat by a specific ferment. 



For this conception of the mechanism of the Abderhalden reaction 

 the investigations of Jobling and Peterson 5 have been fundamental and 

 of great interest and importance. They have shown that the digestive 

 power of a serum is dependent upon non-specific proteolytic ferments 

 or proteases normally present and held in check by an antiferment, 

 which, according to their work, is believed to reside in the unsaturated 

 fatty acids of the serum. Upon removal of the antiferment by means of 



1 Ztsch. f. Immunitatsf., orig., 1914, 12, 170. 



2 Munch, med. Wchnschr., 1914, Ixi, 468; ibid., 608; ibid., 1168. 



3 Biochem. Ztschr., 1914, Ixiv, 103. 



4 Munch, med. Wchnschr., 1914, Ixi, 238. 



6 Jour. Exper. Med., 1914, xix, 459 and 480. 



