438 



Dr. C. Bolton. On the 



[Jan. 25, 



possess the power of dissolving red-blood corpuscles to about the same degree 

 as gastrotoxin. They also agglutinate these cells. 



Agglutination and Precipitation. — The gastrotoxic serum produces similar 

 effects upon emulsions of liver and intestine granules to those described in 

 the case of emulsions of stomach granules. 



Hepato- and enterotoxin not only act upon emulsions of liver and intestine 

 granules, but they also act upon emulsions of stomach granules. Hsemolysin 

 obtained by injecting blood has no more power of acting upon these 

 emulsions than normal rabbit's blood has. 



Lysin. — Up to the present no definite hyaline transformation of gastric 

 cells has been demonstrated as the result of the action of hepato- or 

 enterotoxin or hsemolysin, and gastrotoxin does not appear to act upon the 

 intact liver or intestine cells. 



Removal of the Immune Body by Different Cells. — Only one or two experi- 

 ments of this nature have been done up to the present. In the case of 

 a rabbit which had been immunised against the red-blood corpuscles of the 

 guinea-pig, mixture with stomach cells entirely failed to remove the 

 hsemolysin and stomach lesions resulted on the injection of the serum (see 

 Plate 17, fig. 8). Mixture with liver and intestine cells, however, rendered 

 the same serum less powerful than before. 



In the case of an enterotoxic rabbit, mixture of the serum with either 

 stomach cells or intestine cells effected complete removal of the amboceptor. 



In vitro, stomach cells completely fail to remove the haemolytic factor 

 from enterotoxic or hepatotoxic serum, as was previously observed in the case 

 of gastrotoxic serum. Liver and intestine cells remove the hsemolytic 

 factor from entero- and hepatotoxin as they do in the case of the gastrotoxin. 



The few experiments that have been made with hepato- and entero- 

 toxin therefore confirm the view that gastrotoxin is not strictly specific. 



III. Production of Human Gastrotoxin. 

 Nine rabbits have been immunised against fresh human stomach mucous 

 membrane. Four died from septic infection, the remaining five gave 

 positive results. 



This is not quite such an easy matter as in the case of the guinea-pig's 

 stomach, because the supply of human stomach is not constant, and three 

 weeks or a month may elapse without an opportunity for obtaining the 

 mucous membrane offering itself. In addition to this the stomach cannot 

 be used immediately after death, although on one or two occasions I have 

 been fortunate enough to obtain some from operation cases, and it is 

 impossible to obtain the stomach free from blood. 



