1906.] Specificity and Action in Vitro of Gastrotoxin. 435 



in each case, injected with the untreated serum; if it is examined in vitro 

 controls are likewise prepared in all cases. 



All the experiments have invariably been carried through to a finish on the 

 same day, and all the tissues and sera used were always obtained fresh on 

 that day. In testing the haemolytic power of the treated serum equal 

 weights of the various organs were previously mixed with equal volumes of 

 the serum. The cells were allowed to stand in contact with the serum for 

 one hour at laboratory temperature, except in the case of some of the in vitro 

 experiments, when the tubes were placed in the incubator. 



Experiments in Vivo. Mixture with Stomach Cells. — Four experiments have 

 been done, and in each case with the same result. The gastrotoxin was in all the 

 cases completely removed by the stomach cells, and the resulting serum pro- 

 duced no lesions in the stomach at all. The control animals in all cases 

 showed the usual lesions (see Plate 16, fig. 1). 



Mixture with Intestine Cells. — In four cases the intestine cells failed to 

 destroy the action of the serum, the lesions produced by the treated 

 serum being as extensive as those produced by the untreated serum (see 

 Plate 16, fig. 2). 



In three cases the action was destroyed, but the lesions in the three control 

 animals were so slight that the toxicity of the serum must have been very 

 low. 



Mixture with Liver Cells. — In four cases the liver cells failed to destroy 

 the action of the serum, but in each case there was a weakening of the 

 power of the gastrotoxin, judging by a comparison with the effects produced 

 in the control animals (see Plate 16, fig. 3). 



In one case complete removal of the gastrotoxin resulted, and in this case 

 the latter was of low toxic value, judging by the lesions produced in the 

 control animal (see Plate 16, fig. 4). 



Mixture with Bed Blood Corpuscles. — In three experiments the action of the 

 gastrotoxin was unaffected, and in a fourth the lesion was less extensive than 

 that in the control animal (see Plate 17, fig. 5). 



The results of these experiments clearly demonstrate that other organs of 

 the body besides the stomach have tissue affinities for, at all events, some of 

 the constituents of this serum, and that they can, if not invariably destroy 

 its action, at any rate weaken it. On the other hand, the stomach is the only 

 organ of the body which can invariably and with uniform certainty destroy 

 the action of the gastrotoxin. The serum is thus not, strictly speaking, 

 specific, although lesions are not produced in other organs than the stomach 

 by it as a rule. It may be, however, that one of the constituents of this 

 complex serum is specific for the stomach to a great extent. 



