BACTER10LYSINS AND HMMOLYSINS 



99 



cells of the same species isolysins develop, but that 

 autolysins are almost never formed, caused Ehr- 

 lich and Morgenroth to assume that the body pos- 

 sesses distinct regulating functions which naturally 

 prevent the formation of the highly destructive 

 autolytic substance. It is obvious that if there 

 were no such regulating facilities, the absorption of 

 large bloody effusions and hemorrhages might lead 

 to the formation by the organism of autolysins 

 against its own blood cells. Gengou, a pupil of 

 Metchnikoff, believes to have shown experimen- 

 tally that the destructive action of these auto- 

 lysins is hindered by the simultaneous production 

 of an auto-antiimmune body which immediately 

 inhibits their action. 



In order that isolysins may be formed, it seems 

 necessary to overwhelm the organism once or sev- 

 eral times with large amounts of cells or cell prod- 

 ucts of the same species ; to produce, as Ehrlich says, 

 an ictus immunisatorius. Wassermann tried, by 

 using various blood poisons, such as haemolytic sera, 

 toluylenediamine, etc., for a continued length of 

 time, to cause the formation of these isolysins, but 

 without success, although in these experiments 

 each injection was followed by an appreciable 

 destruction of red cells and absorption of their 

 decomposition products. The gradual and even 

 repeated absorption of not too large quantities of 

 decomposed red cells does not therefore lead to the 



