Immune sera : haemolysins, cytotoxins, and precipitins / by A. Wasserman.

  • Wasserman, August von, 1866-1925.
Date:
1904
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Immune sera : haemolysins, cytotoxins, and precipitins / by A. Wasserman. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    pend? Ehrlich was led to these researches partic- ularly by his so-called Side-chain Theory, which we shall examine in a moment. He made his experiments with a heemolytic serum that had been derived from a goat treated with the red cells of a sheep. This serum, there- fore, was hemolytic specifically for sheep 'blood- cells; i.e., it had increased solvent properties ex- clusively for sheep blood-cells. Basing his reasoning on his side-chain theory, Ehrlich argued as follows: If the hasmolysin is able to exert a specific solvent action on sheep blood-cells, then either of its two factors, the sub- stance sensibilatrice of Bordet or the alexin of nor- mal serum, must possess a specific affinity for these red cells. It must be possible to show this experi- mentally. Such in fact is the case, and the ex- periments devised by him are as follows: Experiment i.—Ehrlich and Morgenroth, as al- ready said, experimented with a serum that was specifically hasmolytic for sheep blood-cells. They made this inactive by heating to 550 C, so that then it contained only the substance sensibilatrice. Next they added a sufficient quantity of sheep red cells, and after a time centrifuged the mixture. They were now able to show that the red cells had combined with all the substance sensibilatrice, and that the supernatant clear liquid was free from the same. In order to prove that such was the case they proceeded thus: To some of the clear centri-