Supplement to '' Nature," May 5, 1904 



BLOOD RELATIONSHIPS. 

 Blood Inwnunity and Blood Relationship ; a Demon- 

 stration of Certain Blood-relationships amongst 

 Animals hv Means of the Precipitin Test for Blood. 

 By George H. F. Nuttall, M.A., M.D., Ph.D. Pp. 

 444. (Cambridge : University Press, 1904.) 



TSCHISTOWITSCH was the first to observe 

 that if a rabbit were subjected to repeated 

 injections of serurii from an animal of a different 

 species, it reacted to the introduction of the foreign 

 proteid by forming and accumulating in its blood a 

 substance which, when added to a solution of the 

 particular serum injected, gave rise to a precipitate. 

 These experiments at once aroused considerable in- 

 terest, and were confirmed and extended by a number 

 of observers on account of their importance in relation 

 to the processes whereby the organism protects itself 

 against the introduction of proteid poisons and micro- 

 organisms by the formation of so-called anti-bodies. 



The interest of the observations is not, however, con- 

 fined to the doctrine of immunity, for fuller knowledge 

 of the phenomena has shown them to have important 

 applications to both forensic medicine and zoology. 

 The value to the former was pointed out by Uhlenhuth 

 and others, who directed attention to the fact that the 

 serum of an animal previously subjected to repeated 

 injections of human serum forms a very sensitive test 

 for the same, and can therefore be used for the detec- 

 tion of human blood. The importance of precipitin 

 phenomena to the zoologist has been particularly in- 

 sisted upon by Dr. Nuttall, and the present volume 

 is largely concerned with results of interest from this 

 point of view. 



When the precipitins were first discovered, it was 

 concluded that the reaction was strictly specific, and 

 that the serum of an animal injected with human 

 serum only formed precipitates with the serum of man 

 and one injected with ox-serum onlv when addeti 

 to the serum of the ox. Nuttall and Uhlenhuth 

 showed, however, that no such hard and fast line 

 could be drawn. Indeed, the development of our 

 knowledge of tlie specificity of the precipitin reaction 

 IS in great measure due to the work of Dr Nuttall 

 and to that of his pupils, Drs. Graham Smith and 

 i>angar. However, although not strictlv specific a 

 precipitin precipitates the serum of' the same 

 spec.es of animal as that used in its preparation more 

 readily and in greater amount than that of animals 

 of other species, and the difference is least marked 

 when the animals are closely related, as in the case 

 of the horse and the donkey. From these results Dr 

 Nuttall conjectured that the varying degree to which 

 a precipitin reaction occurred might afford a valuable 

 indication as to blood relationship. 



The present volume contains the results of experi- 

 ments, undertaken by the author in conjunction with 

 Drs. Graham Smith and Sangar, with a large number 

 of anti-sera upon the blood of ,586 different species of 

 animals. 



The book is divided into two parts. Part i. is 

 de\oted to a condensed summary of our knowledge 

 on anti-bodies in general. It commences with a brief 

 NO. I 80 I, VOL. 70] 



but clear account of Ehrlich's theory regarding the 

 formation of anti-toxins and anti-bodies generally. 

 This is followed by a series of paragraphs on ferments 

 and anti-ferments, cytotoxins, hemolysins, bacterid- 

 Ivsins, agglutinins, &-c. , which in style suggests the 

 pages of a technological dictionary. Short sentences, 

 each pregnant with some fact, and with reference 

 attached, follow one another in bewildering suc- 

 cession. Many of these are contradictory, and it is 

 to be regretted that there is no summing up by the 

 author at the end of each paragraph. 



This portion of the book does great credit to the 

 author's industry and scholarship, but it makes impos- 

 sible reading, and is only serviceable to one knowing 

 the subject and wanting the references. .After fifty 

 pages one is glad to reach the end of part i., and tO' 

 come to the subject-matter proper of the book, viz. 

 the precipitins. 



Part ii. commences with the methods for obtaining 

 precipitating anti-sera. The style now leaves little tO' 

 be desired, and this account is delightfullv clear and 

 complete, so that anyone wishing to repeat the experi- 

 ments could hardly fail for want of adequate instruc- 

 tions. Sections ii. and iii. contain nearly all that is 

 known of the nature of precipitin reactions and the 

 effects of heat, peptic and tryptic digestion, filtration 

 and putrefaction, upon both precipitins and precipit- 

 able substances. On p. 126. however, the statement is 

 made that " no measurements of the amount of pre- 

 cipitin during the growth of immunisation have as yet 

 been made which would correspond to those made upon 

 antitoxin." One can only presume that this para- 

 graph was written prior to the publication of von 

 Dungern's quantitative experiments with the precipi- 

 tins obtained by the injection of crab-plasma. 



Section iv. deals with the specificity of the precipi- 

 tins. After historically reviewing the views of 

 different experimenters on this subject, and showing 

 that increased knowledge has fully confirmed his 

 earlier contentions against the absolute specificitv of 

 precipitin reactions, the author expresses himself as 

 in entire agreement with the remark of Linoisier and 

 Lemoine : " hh oi!i on a cru voir une action specifique, 

 un examen attentif ne permit de voir cju'une action 

 particulierement intense." 



Section V. treats of precipitins obtained bv the injec- 

 tion of other proteids from bacteria, milk, and higher 

 plants. In section vi. are given in tabular form the 

 results of 16,000 tests of 30 anti-sera with the bloods of 

 a large number of animals. This particular series is 

 not quantitative, and was presumablv made before the 

 author had devised his quantitative method, the re- 

 actions being entered as " full." " marked." 

 " medium," " faint," and " nil." This is followed by 

 a later series of 500 experiments made in conjunction 

 with Strangeways with a quantitative method 

 devised by the author, wherebv the dilution of the 

 serum and the time of reaction being constant, the 

 actual volume of the conglomerated precipitate is 

 measured in an ingenious way. The volume of the 

 precipitate, with the homologous serum, is taken as 

 the unit, and the volumes obtained with the sera of 

 other animals are expressed in percentages of this unit. 



