ANTITOXINS 



29 



antitoxin reaction. It is, of course, well known 

 that a solution of a compound such as sodium 

 chloride represents not only NaCl in solution, 

 but also sodium ions and chlorine ions. There is 

 a certain amount of dissociation going on hand in 

 hand with a combination of the two components. 

 The degree of this varies with the temperature and 

 the dilution of the substances. Arrhenius believes 

 that the same process goes on with the toxin- 

 antitoxin combination and that such more or less 

 dissociated compounds give rise 'to the effects 

 Ehrlich ascribes to the toxon. There is, however, 

 no direct evidence that the combination of toxin- 

 antitoxin is reversible. It is true that Morgenroth 

 has been able to dissociate the two components of 

 a neutral mixture of cobra venom and its antitoxin. 

 But even here we are not dealing with a reversible 

 reaction, for it requires certain manipulations to 

 disrupt the neutral combination. In their work 

 on the toxin of symptomatic anthrax, Grassberger 

 and Schattenfroh found that different mixtures 

 were obtained, depending on whether they mixed 

 the toxin and antitoxin after diluting them, or 

 diluted the toxin-antitoxin mixture. This fact 

 is not in favor of Arrhenius' theory, for according 

 to that, the same state of equilibrium should exist 

 in both instances owing to reversibility, and the 

 same fraction of the toxin of necessity remain 

 free. 



