1909.] Oil the Absorption of Agglutinin by Bacteria, etc. 189 



reached. Thus we cannot accept the statement made by Eisenberg and 

 Volk, and accepted by Arrhenius as being " in good agreement " with his 

 tlieoiy, that the reaction has reached equilibrium " in less than five minutes 

 even at 0° C." 



2. In view of the statement by Arrhenius, based on the figures of 

 Eisenberg and Volk for the absorption of agglutinin by bacteria and his own 

 figures for the absorption of immune body obtained in conjunction with 

 Morgenroth, that no limit value for C with increasing concentration of B 

 can be observed, the following observations we have made are of great 

 interest. 



In Experiments G, 8, 10, 11, 12 (Tables VII, IX, XI, XII, XIII) it will be 

 seen that there is a great tendency for C to reach a limit value, in spite of 

 an increase in the concentration of T, the total amount of agglutinins 

 originally present ; thus in Experiment 8, for example, it is seen that 

 C remains practically the same, although T increases from 1845 to 2882, 

 actually being 1475 and 1477. These experimental observations cannot be 

 brought into agreement with Arrhenius' statement. 



That this was not the peculiarity of a single stock of bacteria and its 

 homologous serum is proved by the fact that Experiments 6 and 8 were 

 carried out with a polyvalent serum. Experiment 10 with a different serum, 

 and Experiments 11 and 12 with yet a third variety, as is detailed in the 

 tables. 



Further, it can be seen that this phenomenon does not depend on the 

 agglutinating strength of the serum, nor on the amount absorbed, since in 

 Experiment 8 the maximum absorption is 1477 units out of 2882, whilst in 

 Experiment 12 the maximum absorption is only 147 out of the 732. 



The point at which this limit value will be reached is dependent, not on 

 the actual amount of agglutinin units present in the serum, but on a number 

 of conditions, such as the amount of bacterial emulsion, the actual dilution 

 of the serum, etc. Thus, if for instance a limit value is reached at a given 

 concentration of the serum by treating it with a number of bacilli 10 x, the 

 limit value would be reached at a lower concentration if the serum was 

 treated with only x, and at a higher one if with 100 x, as is demonstrated by 

 Experiments 6 and 8, and again in Experiments 11 and 12. 



Therefore one of the main pillars in support of Arrhenius' theory on the 

 absorption of agglutinins by bacteria falls to the ground because a continued 

 increase in the size of C is an absolute necessity for the application of his 

 formula C = A,B", and thus for his explanation of the nature of the 

 phenomenon. 



Passing now to Experiments 2, 5, 7, 9, 14 (Tables III, VI, VIII, X, XV), 



