1906.] Hcemolysis and the Phagocytosis of Red Blood Cells. 539 



Savtchenko stated further that he took as the objects of experiment the 

 phagocytes of the guinea-pig and its red blood corpuscles, and the serum of 

 a rabbit immunised against the red blood cells of the guinea-pig, and heated 

 the serum of the rabbit to 55° C. to destroy the alexines, leaving the specific 

 fixateur intact. He also stated that he took the washed red cells of a 

 guinea-pig and diluted them with normal saline solution and added a 

 quantity of heated hsemolytic immune serum in a dilution of 1/200. After 

 this mixture had been six hours at 37° C. he centrifugalised and washed the 

 corpuscles thrice with normal saline. " The red blood cells," he adds, " had 

 attached to themselves the fixateur ; since the addition of normal serum was 

 sufficient to bring about the solution of the haemoglobin." 



Again,* he states, " II est possible qu'il existe dans le plasma un minimum 

 de fixateur insuffisant pour etre decele par la reaction de dissolution, mais 

 tout a fait suffisant pour provoquer la phagocytose apres s'etre fixe sur ces 

 derniers." 



Savtchenko's position is this : As the result of his experiments he came to 

 the conclusion that in the serum of a rabbit immunised with guinea-pig's 

 blood, there exists a substance which causes phagocytosis of the red blood 

 cells of the guinea-pig, and this substance, which may act either on the 

 phagocytes or on the bodies to be phagocytosed, is the specific fixateur, and 

 possibly, according to the amount present in the serum, this substance causes 

 haemolysis or phagocytosis. 



From what has been given here of Savtchenko's work, it appears to be 

 beyond doubt that he considered that the specific fixateur which induces the 

 phagocytosis of red blood cells is the same as the haemolytic amboceptor of 

 Ehrlich and not a separate body inducing this action. 



Barrattt has shown that even with unheated immune serum, phagocytosis 

 of red blood cells may occur without the serum possessing either haemolytic 

 or agglutinative properties, and concludes from this that the phagocytosis is 

 not induced by the fixateur in the sense of the term as used by Savtchenko, 

 nor by the agglutinin, but by some other body acting on the red blood 

 corpuscles and not on the leucocytes. This body he placed in the class of 

 " opsonins." 



Besredka(lo) in summing up Barratt's paper says, " II y a, en effet, dans 

 un serum haemolytique plusieurs substances. Est-ce le fixateur (amboceptor), 

 qui determine la phagocytose ? est-ce l'agglutinine ? est-ce enfin une troisieme 

 substance qui aurait uniquement pour fonction de presider a la phago- 

 cytose " ? Besredka, it is clear, also assumes that the fixateur is identical 

 with the amboceptor. 



* Loc. cit., p. 118. t Loc. cit. 



VOL. LXXVII. — B. 2 R, 



