207 



On the Presence of Hcem-agglutinins, Hcem-opsonins, and Hemo- 

 lysins in the Blood obtained from Infectious and Non- 

 Infectious Diseases in Man. (Second Report.) 



By Leonard S. Dudgeon, F.R.C.P. Lond. 



(Communicated by Dr. F. W. Mott, F.R.S. Received February 18, — Read 



March 4, 1909.) 



(From the Pathological Laboratories, St. Thomas's Hospital.) 



On July 31, 1908, my preliminary communication on this subject was 

 received by the Royal Society and was read on November 12, 1908. 



In this report attention was drawn to certain phenomena occurring when 

 normal and immune human serum was allowed to act in the presence of 

 normal and immune human blood cells. The whole of the investigations 

 were carried out with human blood obtained from various infective and non- 

 infective diseases in man. The technique adopted in all experiments was 

 referred to in detail, and will not be described in the present communication. 

 The most important results were obtained in the examination of the agglu- 

 tinative properties of the blood when an interaction took place between 

 serum and red cells. It was shown that auto-agglutination was a rare 

 phenomenon, but iso-agglutinatiou was common. In some instances hsem- 

 agglutination occurred when the immune serum and normal red cells were 

 mixed together ; in other cases the effect was produced by the interaction of 

 normal serum and immune red cells. In many examples of this reaction the 

 agglutinated red cells were altered in shape and size, especially when the 

 clumps were exceptionally large. Attention was drawn to the distinction 

 between agglutination of red blood corpuscles and agglutination of rouleaux. 

 Saturation experiments were performed, and the specificity of the various 

 reactions was demonstrated. Immune serum from cases of infection with the 

 bacillus typhosus was rendered specifically inactive by saturation with suit- 

 able red cells, although the bacterial agglutinins remained. 



Attention must be drawn to the fact that it was stated in the preliminary 

 report that agglutination was not observed when normal serum was added to 

 normal red cells, either of the same individual or from another healthy person, 

 with one exception. A considerable amount of further investigation along 

 this line has shown that the second part of this statement requires alteration, 

 as will be subsequently referred to. 



Experiments on phagocytosis of red blood corpuscles were in the main 

 negative, although numerous methods were adopted. It was in only one case 



