Abstract
Summary Antisera from 14 of 16 rats and from 14 of 17 guinea pigs immunized with sheep serum required from 1 to 2 times as much antiserum for the optimal constant-antigen ratio as for the optimal constant-antiserum ratio. Calculation of the quotient of the constant-antigen ratio/constant-antiserum ratio from fine tests done on 6 rat and 8 guinea-pig antisera showed that approximately 1.6 times as much antiserum was required for the constant-antigen optimum as for the constant-antiserum optimum. This quotient is similar to that obtained by Taylor with rabbit precipitin for crystalline ovalbumin. The exceptions were either weakly flocculating antisera or those exhibiting more than one zone of flocculation. These exceptions might be explained either by individual animal variation or by postulating that the constant-antiserum optimal ratio represents the reaction of a different antigen-antibody system from that yielding the constant-antigen optimal ratio. The constancy of this quotient, its similarity to the quotient of rabbit antiserum to crystalline ovalbumin, as well as the results of tests with serum proteins precipitated with ammonium sulphate, suggest that the majority of these animals responded to the intraäbdominal injection of sheep serum with circulating precipitins for only a few of the several antigens in sheep serum.
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