Therapeutic Uses of Bacteriolytic Serums 



141 



bactericidal action toward that particular organism, though it 

 retains its general bacteria-destroying power. If, however, the 

 serum be greatly diluted, its action is changed, so that it loses its 

 general bacteria-destroying power and develops marked increase in 

 the specific destructive action upon the particular bacteria used 

 in the experiment. Neisser and Wechsberg attribute the peculiar 

 reaction to the fact that there being more amboceptors than com- 

 plements in the serum, some of the former satisfy 

 their combining affinities by attaching themselves 

 to the bacteria, some by attaching themselves to 

 the complement, instead of forming combinations 

 of all three. If under these circumstances' the 

 serum containing the amboceptors is diluted until 

 their number becomes approximately equal to 

 the number of complements introduced, any 

 deviation resulting from inequality of the com- 

 bining affinities becomes improbable. Bordet 

 and Gay,* however, have performed experi- 

 ments tending to show that these elements do 

 not really unite, this seeming to controvert the 

 theory of Neisser and Wechsberg, and Boltonf 

 has shown that normal serum may kiU rela- 

 tively more bacteria when diluted than when 

 undiluted. 

 « 



THERAPEtmc USES OF BACTERIOLYTIC SERUMS 



It was at first hoped that some of tJiese 

 serums and especially the bacteriolytic serums 

 would have a wide therapeutic apph'cation in 



Fig. 24. — Schemat- 

 ic representation of 

 the interfering ac- 

 tion of anti-ambo- 

 ceptors, and anti- 

 complements. A, 

 Anti-am boceptor 

 action: c, Comple- 

 ment; am, ambo- 

 ceptor; aa, anti-am- 

 boceptor preventing 

 theamboceptor from 

 connecting with the 

 cell. B: c. Com- 

 plement; ac, anti- 

 complement pre- 

 venting the comple- 

 ment from connect- 

 ing with the ambo- 

 ceptor, am. 



cases in which non-toxicogenic bacteria were in 

 vading the body, but experiment and ex- 

 perience have shown that the laws governing 

 their action greatly limit their application, and that their effects, 

 when not beneficial, are bound to be harmful. The difficulty lies 

 in the fact that when we manufacture such serums we prepare 

 only the immune body, there being no increase of the complement. 

 To introduce this by itself does the patient no good, because in 

 most cases the existing infection has brought about the formation of 

 as much or more "immune body" than can be utilized by the com- 

 plement. To give injections of active bodies that cannot be utilized 

 is shown by Comus and GleyJ and Kossel§ to be followed by the 

 formation of antibodies — in this case "anti-immune bodies" — 

 by which their effect is neutralized. Should anti-immune bodies be 



* "Ann. de I'lnst. Pasteur," June 25, 1906, xx, No. 6, pp. 267-498. 

 t "The Bacteriolytic Power of the Blood-serum of Hogs," Bull. No. 95 of the 

 Bureau of Animal Industry, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture. 

 I "Compte rendu de I'Acad. de Sciences de Paris," Jan. i, 1898, 126. 

 § "Berl. klin. Woch.," 1898, S. 152. 



