On the relative concentration of lysins, precipitins, agglutinins, opsonins and related substances in the different body fluids of normal and immune animals

Abstract

The present work was suggested by some of our previous work with Prof. Carlson on the physiology of lymph. It was suggested that it would be of profit to establish the differences between serum and the other body fluids in their content of antibodies of various kinds in normal and immune animals, with the hope that it would have some bearing upon the problem of lymph formation, and also upon the origin of these antibodies. Thus far the hemolysins, hemagglutinins, bacterial agglutinins, bacterial opsonins, hemopsonins, and precipitins have been studied in the serum, neck lymph, thoracic lymph, pericardial fluid, cerebrospinal fluid, and aqueous humor. The bacterio-lysins are also under consideration. The results with normal dogs have been the following: Hemolysins are found in the serum, thoracic lymph, and neck lymph in the normal animal. Serum and thoracic lymph contain them in almost equal quantities, with a slight balance in favor of the serum. The hemolytic power of the neck lymph is much lower than that of the serum, and is almost entirely wanting in the lymph which is secured without massage. In two of seven cases there was a small amount of hemolysis in the pericardial fluid, in the remaining cases there was no laking when the fluid was free from erythrocytes. There is no hemolysis in the cerebrospinal fluid, except in one case where there was a trace of free hemoglobin. There was no hemolysis in the aqueous humor. The hemagglutinins run parallel with the hemolysins except that they act in higher dilutions than the latter.