Immune sera : a concise exposition of our present knowledge concerning the constitution and mode of action of antitoxins, agglutinins, hæmolysins, bacteriolysins, precipitins, cytotoxins, and opsonins / by Dr. Charles Frederick Bolduan.
- Charles Bolduan
- Date:
- 1908
Licence: In copyright
Credit: Immune sera : a concise exposition of our present knowledge concerning the constitution and mode of action of antitoxins, agglutinins, hæmolysins, bacteriolysins, precipitins, cytotoxins, and opsonins / by Dr. Charles Frederick Bolduan. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![mental properties of the toxins is their ability to excite, in the organism attacked, antitoxins directed specifically against them, so that for every true toxin there is a corresponding antitoxin. In addition to these bacterial toxins we know of Other poisonous vsubstances possessing similar characteristics. Among these are the “ zootoxins,” — snake venoms, spider and toad poisons, the toxin of eel blood, and the ” phytotoxins,” — ricin, crotin, abrin, etc. It may be mentioned that some of these are of somewhat more complex con- stitution than the ordinary bacterial toxins. Ricin, for example, appear to possess one hapto])hore group but two ergophore groups, a toxic and an agglutinating one. In the case of the snake venoms it is not yet definitely known whether they are haptins of the first order or of the second. The Relations Existing between Toxin and Anti- toxin. — The exact nature of the toxin-antitoxin reaction has long been the subject of study and has given rise to considerable discussion. For obvious reasons most of the work has been done with diphtheria and tetanus toxins and their antitoxins. In order to give the reader some conception of the diverging views of various authorities we shall devote a few pages to a brief study of the diphtheria toxin-antitoxin reaction. During the earlier years of toxin-antitoxin in- vestigations the filtered or sterilized bouillon, in](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28060167_0037.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
