Preliminary report upon the transmission of haemolysins from mother to offspring

In view of the fact that little work has been done upon the transmission of hæmolysins from mother to offspring, and that there is a lack of agreement between the reported results of the workers in this field, the subject was taken up for further investigation. The question is of practical importance, since a parallel relationship exists between hæmolysins and bacteriolytic bodies: the latter group of substances play a more or less important rôle in immunity against certain infections.

Goats were selected as the most suitable experimental animals for these studies. In each case the animal was actively immunized by repeated injections of washed sheep-corpuscles given subcutaneously. Serum and milk samples were collected, throughout each experiment, and stored in an ice-box. All were tested at the same time, under uniform conditions, after the given experiment was closed.

One series of animals were immunized immediately following the birth of their young. In all, excepting one case, the milk contained no demonstrable hæmolysins. As evident, the sucklings from the mothers which supplied the negative milk, gave negative sera. The suckling which received the mother's milk containing hæmolysins, showed no specific hæmolysins at any time in its serum. The hæmolysins did not appear (by test) in the milk in this case until about one week after birth of the young.

A second series of animals were immunized at different periods during the course of gestation. Before birth of the young the animal's nipples were sealed to prevent the young getting any milk before blood samples were taken. When twins came, one was placed, at once, upon cow's milk for control. At the time of birth none of the young showed specific hamolysins in the blood serum.