SCIENTIFIC PROCEEDINGS 



Abstracts of Communications 



One hundred twenty-eighth meeting. 



College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York City, 

 January 17, 1923 



Vice-President Jobling in the chair. 

 96 (2058) 



Some relations between hydrogen-ion concentration and 

 antigenic properties of proteins. 1 



By I. S. FALK and M. F. CAULFIELD. 



[From the Department of Public Health, Yale School of Medicine, 

 New Haven, Conn.] 



The recent work of J. Loeb 2 and others has indicated the im- 

 portant role which the hydrogen-ion concentration plays in af- 

 fecting the physical and chemical properties of proteins. Our 

 studies were designed to determine whether certain biological 

 properties of the proteins were also affected by hydrogen and 

 hydroxyl-ions over the range of concentration which markedly 

 affects such properties as osmotic pressure, swelling power, 

 viscosity, power to combine with ions, electrical charge, etc. 



Our first studies upon the anaphylactogenic properties of pro- 

 teins were made with gelatin. We failed to produce anaphylaxis 

 in guinea pigs with this protein when it was introduced intra- 

 venously or intraperitoneal^ in solutions at its isoelectric point 



i These studies were aided by a grant from the Loomis Eesearch Fund of 

 the Yale School of Medicine. 



2L6eb, J., Proteins and the Theory of Colloidal Behavior, New York, 

 292 pp. 



