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Mr. L. S. Dudgeon. On the Presence of [Feb. 18, 



itself that in the splenic juice might be found a substance or substances 

 intimately concerned with phagocytosis, haemolysis, and certain other 

 phenomena, although absent or present in an infinitesimal degree in the 

 blood serum. The spleen from one of the cases of diabetic coma was 

 extracted in a suitable machine, the thick lumpy extract filtered at high 

 speed, and the centrifugalisation repeated with the upper layer of extract 

 which separated during the first stage. This final sticky, but thin extract, 

 was used for testing its haemolytic value on normal red cells and the auto- 

 immune cells as in the case of serum investigation. 



Four series of experiments were made by allowing the splenic extract to 

 act on auto-immune cells and normal cells, incubating the mixtures at 37° C. 

 for one hour, and then in the ice safe over night. A similar double series 

 of tubes prepared in an identical manner were first placed in ice overnight, 

 then at 37° C. for two hours, and finally in ice for several hours. All 

 results were identical. It must be pointed out here that the haemolytic 

 mixture was proved to be free from bacteria. Now while the immune blood 

 serum in this case failed to hsemolyse the immune red cells, and only reacted 

 slightly in the presence of normal cells, the action being limited to a serum 

 content of 37"5 per cent., yet the splenic extract was equally and strongly 

 haemolytic to normal and the auto-immune cells. The action was complete 

 with a splenic content of 25 per cent., and limited to a mixture containing 

 - 25 per cent, of splenic extract. In a case of pernicious anaemia, on the 

 other hand, neither the immune serum nor splenic extract haemolysed the 

 immune red cells. It is impossible, on the results of two experiments, to 

 refer more fully to these investigations on the haemolysing action of the 

 splenic extracts on red blood cells, but from the work of H^din and others 

 we know that the spleen does contain proteid enzymes of considerable 

 potency. 



The blood was investigated very fully in seven cases of pernicious 

 anaemia, and of all diseases it might well be imagined that auto-haemolysis 

 would be demonstrated in this one. In the preliminary communication it 

 was pointed out that auto-haemolysis could not be proved. In this paper 

 a similar result must be recorded, neither could haemolysis be induced by 

 allowing the immune serum to act on normal red cells. It was found, 

 however, that the immune serum had the same power to haemolyse guinea- 

 pigs' red cells as normal human serum possessed. In three instances 

 •normal serum was capable of haemolysing the pernicious red cells to a 

 marked degree : in each example haemolysing agglutinins were present, while 

 in two out of the three cases phagocytosis of the immune red cells occurred 

 to a striking degree in the presence of normal serum and normal leucocytes. 



