192 Mr. J. A. Craw. On the Physical [ Mar. 22, 
free antilysin and compound have no influence on the equilibrium. Thus 
Walker and Appleyard found that the concentration of aqueous picric acid in 
contact with varying amounts of diphenylamin is constant, but that the 
latter was stained more deeply when present in smaller quantities. The 
relations observed between lysin and antilysin are, however, totally different, 
for in this case the amount combined varies continuously with the concen- 
tration of the lysin. 
I therefore conclude that the removal of lysin from a solution by antilysin ws 
not capable of interpretation as a purely chemical change, and the law of chemical 
mass action does not apply when the lysin is present in excess. 
From the filtration experiments with neutral and overneutralised tmixtures 
it, however, seems possible that when excess of antilysin is present, the 
chemical law of mass action holds, for the concentration of free lysin was 
found to be practically constant when the concentration of antilysin was 
largely increased. 
The application of Adsorption and Surface Tension hypotheses to the Lysin- 
Antilysin Action. 
Walker and Appleyard also investigated the phenomena of the fixation of 
picric acid by silk, to which the relations of lysin to antilysin, which have 
been described above, present a much closer analogy. They found that the 
concentration of the dye bath varies continuously with the depth to which 
the silk is dyed, and that the concentration of picric acid (C,) in the silk was 
proportional to the concentration of free picric acid (C,) raised to a constant 
power 2, or C,=KC,". The adsorption of substances, ¢g., of iodine from 
solutions by charcoal (Schmidt, 1894); of iodine from water by starch 
{Kiister, 1894), etc., have in general been found to obey similar relations. 
It is, then, not improbable that some such adsorption formula may be found 
to hold for the fixation of lysins, etc., by their respective antibodies, as I 
‘suggested in a recent paper on the phenomena of agglutination (1905). I 
am at present engaged in further investigating the phenomena of lysin- 
antilysin relations from this point of view, and, so far, the results have been 
encouraging. 
SUMMARY OF CONCLUSIONS. 
1. Megatherium lysin passed through a gelatine filter, and is diffusible 
through gelatine. 
2. Megatherium antilysin does not pass through a gelatine filter, and is not 
appreciably diffusible through gelatine. 
