68 IMMUNE SERA 



Ehrlich, as a result of his experimental work 

 with Morgenroth, claims that the latter is the case ; 

 namely, that it takes a different complement to fit 

 the immune body specifically haemolytic for guinea 

 pig blood than it does to fit that specific for chicken 

 blood. 



Bordet, on the other hand, assuming that the 

 immune body plays the role of mordant, believes 

 as does also Buchner, that there is but one single 

 complement in the serum. According to him, 

 this complement is able to dissolve blood cells as 

 well as bacteria after these have been sensitized 

 by their specific immune body. Each of these 

 authors supports his claims by means of ingenious 

 experiments, for the details of which, however, 

 we must refer to the original articles, as they require 

 the knowledge of a specialist for their compre- 

 hension. We shall, however, give one of Bordet 's l 

 experiments on this point in some detail since it has 

 found extensive application in another direction: 



The Bordet-Gengou Phenomenon. Bordet sensi- 

 tized blood corpuscles with appropriate amboceptors, 

 and then exposed them to the action of a freshly drawn 

 normal serum. If now he waited for the occurrence 

 of haemolysis and then added sensitized cells (bacteria 

 or blood corpuscles of a different species), the latter re- 

 mained entirely unchanged, although the serum that had 

 been used as complement was capable in its original con- 



1 Bordet and Gengou, Annal. Inst. Pasteur. Vol. xv, 1901. 



