Abstract
The observations herein presented have to do with the alterations in the reaction of the red blood cells to the action of certain hemolytic agents. This alteration in the resisting power of the red cells may be either in the direction of a diminution or an increase in their resistance; increased resistance, however, is apparently a much more striking and demonstrable feature than is the reverse, and seems to me, furthermore, to be of considerable importance from the standpoint of immunity. My observations comprise a study of almost five hundred human cases, normal and diseased, in which the red cells were subjected to the action of various lytic agents. Among the agents so studied were various acids and alkalies; certain metallic salts, such as bichloride of mercury, which possesses a well-known hemolytic power; certain vegetable hemolysins, such as saponin, digitonin and cyclamin, and certain animal venoms, such as rattlesnake and cobra venom. The results obtained from the study of the inorganic lysins have not been such that they could be reduced to a definite correlation with any given class of corpuscles studied. The results with the organic lysins were of greater interest, the most marked feature being the striking resistance offered by the corpuscles derived from certain cases of syphilis to the action of saponin and allied poisons. On the other hand, not all of the cases with syphilis manifested this result; indeed some of them seemed among the least resistant of the bloods which were studied. Further analysis revealed the fact that some cases of advanced tuberculosis of the lungs also possessed corpuscles marked by resistance to these poisons, although their resistance did not equal that of the cases of syphilis. Added to these unsatisfactory conditions was the fact that the technique, unless most rigidly observed, failed to demonstrate these differences satisfactorily.
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