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BIOLOGY: GENERAL AND MEDICAL 



not stable, but lost its toxic properties with the lapse 

 of time. This did not, however, prevent it from com- 

 bining with the antibody in the usual proportions, so 

 that it seemed as though the molecules of the toxin 

 were possessed of dual qualities which might be described 

 as poisoning and combining, respectively. To the pois- 

 oning qualities he applied the term toxophores, to the 

 combining qualities, haptophores. In Ehrlich's imagina- 

 tion a toxin molecule (its chemical composition being 

 unknown and therefore impossible to represent by chem- 

 ical symbols) is pictured thus: 



He conceives that the toxin molecules attach them- 

 selves to the cell protoplasm by virtue of receptors or 



FIG. 132. Cell with haptophorous group attached to the haptophile and 

 toxophore to the toxophile group, respectively. 



hypothetical processes possessing adaptations to such 

 molecular combinations as are utilized by the cells in 

 their nutrition and function, and incidentally to the 

 haptophores of the toxins. This is made clear by 

 reference to the following ideogram: 



In cases in which distinct intoxication of the cell is 

 effected by the toxin molecule not only do the hap- 

 tophorous groups attach themselves to the adapted hap- 

 tophilic receptors, but the toxophorous groups also 

 find attachment to adapted toxophilic receptors: 



It can be conjectured that when the haptophorous 

 groups seize upon the adapted receptors, the cell proc- 

 esses are embarrassed through the inability of the cell 



