Abstract
On the basis of experiments performed with horse serum, and similar antigenic substances, it has long been held that precipitation produced by antigen and antibody never goes on to completion, but that both factors are always present in the supernatant fluid. This has been explained by some as an instance of the law of mass action, by others on the basis of certain analogies of colloidal chemistry.
If a pure substance, such as crystalline egg albumen, separated by Hopkins's method, be used as antigen, the results are quite different. When mixed in proper proportions with its antiserum a precipitate is formed; the supernatant fluid never contains both reactive substances. The results hitherto obtained are due, therefore, to a fallacy of technique, and are traceable to the presence of multiple individual antigens in the antigenic substance employed, with a corresponding multiplicity of antibodies in the antiserum.
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