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68 GENERAL AND PHYSICO-CHEMICAL.
Arrhenius opposes Ehrlich’s theory that the combination between
toxin and anti-body is of a chemical nature, but claims, that their for-
mation does not proceed until one of the components has been used up.
An equilibrium is established between the free toxin and the free anti-
body on one side and the combination of the two on the other, which
the law of mass action requires according to the formula:
C . C = K . CN
(page 32).
toxin anti-body toxin +anti-body
For tetanolysin (a substance obtained from tetanus cultures, which dissolves
red-blood corpuscles) and its anti-body, as well as for diphtheria toxin and the
corresponding anti-body, n=2 was found, i.e., in the combination of a molecule
of toxin with a molecule anti-body two molecules toxin-antitoxin combination
was formed.
The toxic action which a mixture of toxin and anti-body exerts
depends upon the quantity of toxin which, according to the above
formula, must always remain free. 1
According to this theory the toxin
is a unit poison, as Arrhenius 2
now admits with Ehrlich, that the
poison is gradually transformed into a non-toxic or only slightly toxic
substance which has the same ability to combine with antitoxin as the
toxin itself.
Ehrlich’s theory, as well as that of Arrhenius admits of a chem-
ical combination between the antigen and the anti-body. According
to Ehrlich besides this the substrate (or the cells sensitive to the anti-
gen) combines with the antigen, which is not conformable with the theory
of Arrhenius.
The combination toxin-anti-body is first gradually produced, and
then it is taken up from all sides so that the toxin is fastened to the
anti-body by a secondary process (exception, cobra poison). The com-
bination toxin-antitoxin is not reversible in the ordinary sense. This
is most easily shown by the fact that to a certain limit more toxin is
neutralized according to the time allowed to elapse before the quantity
of toxin remaining free is determined by injection into an animal or in
other ways.3 In certain cases it is possible to obtain the toxin again in
an active form from the toxin-antitoxin combination, and indeed by
treatment with very dilute hydrochloric acid (Morgenroth 4
). See
also page 64 on the setting free of rennin from its combination with
normal scrum and with egg-white. Hedin5
has also been able to obtain
« Zeitschr. f. physik. Chem., 44, 7 (1903).
3
Immunochemie, Leipzig, 1907, 132.
3 Martin and Cherry, Proc. Roy. Soc, 1898, 420’.
4
Berl. klin. Wochenschr., 1905, No. 5; Festschr. z. Eroffnung d. pathol. Instit.
Berlin, 1906; Virchow’s Arch., 190, 371 (1907).
* Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem., 77, 229 (1912).
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