Abstract
E. P. Pick in 1901 associated a number of anti-substances individually with the one or the other of the two serum globulin fractions of the Hofmeister classification. In the pseudoglobulin [3.4 to 4.6 sat. (NH4)2SO4 solution 1 ] group of antibodies he placed the diphtheria and tetanus antitoxins and the typhoid agglutinin of horse serum; the lower or euglobulin fraction (2.9 to 3.4 sat.) comprises diphtheria and tetanus antitoxin and cholera lysin in the goat, typhoid agglutinin in the goat, rabbit and guinea pig, and finally cholera agglutinin in the horse and goat. It becomes possible, according to Pick, to separate the individual specifically reacting anti-substances by fractioning appropriate mixtures of sera. Such a possibility suggested the application of this method to the further study of certain anti-bodies, especially of the relation of specific and group agglutinins developed by immunization against a single strain of organism. Preliminary experiments in the course of our investigation indicated the unreliability of Pick's differentiation, and attention was accordingly directed to the actual possibility and practicability of distinguishing between anti-bodies by fractionation of the globulin. The availability of poly-agglutinative sera for the work gave a chance for making numerous and extended observations of the distribution of these anti-bodies in the fractions.
It was found repeatedly in experiments with rabbit and goat sera that the agglutinins for the dysentery group of organisms (Flexner Manila and Shiga), typhoid, coli and cholera, were not confined to either the pseudoglobulin or the washed [with 3.4 sat. (NH4)2SO4 solution] euglobulin fractions; they were either split by the fractioning, the major portion occurring in the pseudoglobulin, or almost the entire amount of the agglutinating substances recovered were in this higher fraction in the original quantitative proportion to one another.
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