On Tmmunity u'itJi Special Reference to Cell TAfe. 437 



and are, after the manner of a secretion, handed over as needless 

 ballast to the blood. 



Eegarde'd in accordance with this conception, the antitoxines represent 

 nothing mm'e than side-chains reproduced in excess during regeneration, 

 and therefore pushed off from the protoplasm, and so coming to exist in a free 

 state. With this explanation the phenomena of antitoxine formation 

 lose all their strange, one might say miraculous, characters. I have 

 deemed it advisable to represent by means of some purely arbitrary 

 diagrams (Plates 6 and 7) the views I have expressed regarding the 

 relations of the cell considered in the manner I have been describing. 

 Needless to say, these diagrams must be regarded quite apart from 

 all morphological considerations, and as being merely a pictorial 

 method of presenting my views on cellular metabolism, and the 

 method of toxine action and antitoxine formation during the process 

 of immunisation. 



In the first place our theory affords an explanation of the specific 

 nature of the antitoxines, that tetanus antitoxine is only caused to be 

 produced by tetanus toxine, and diphtheria antitoxine through diph- 

 theria toxine. This very specific nature of the affinity between 

 toxine and cell is the necessary preliminary and cause of the 

 toxicity itself. Further, our theory makes it easy to understand the 

 long-lasting character of the immunity produced by one or several 

 administrations of toxine, and also the fact that the organism 

 reacts to relatively small quantities of toxine by the production 

 of very much greater quantities of antitoxine. By the act of immu- 

 nisation, certain cells of the organism become converted into cells 

 "secreting" antitorine at the same rate as this is excreted. New 

 quantities of antitoxine are constantly produced, and so through- 

 out a long period the antitoxine content of - the serum remains nearly 

 constant. The secretory nature of the formation of antitoxines has 

 been very strikingly illustrated hj the beautiful experiments of 

 Salmonson and Madsen, who have shown that pilocarpine, which 

 augments the secretion of most glands, also occasions in immunised 

 animals a rapid increase in the antitoxine content of the serum. 



The production of antitoxines must, in keeping with our theory, be 

 regarded as a function of the haptophore group of the toxine, and it 

 is therefore easy to understand why, out of the great number of 

 alkaloids, none are in a position to cause the production of antitoxines. 

 Conversely, indeed, I recognise in this incapacity of the alkaloids, in 

 opposition to the toxines, to produce antitoxines, a further and 

 salient proof of the truth of the deduction I have previously based on 

 chemical grounds, that the alkaloids possess no haptophore group which 

 anchors them to the cells of organs. To formulate a general statement, 

 the capacity of a body to cause the production of antitoxine stands in 

 inseparable connection with the presence of a haptophore atomic 



