On the absorption of agglutinin by bacteria and the application of physico-chemical laws thereto

Abstract
Eisenberg and Volk, in 1902, were the first to endeavour to make quantitative measurements of the absorption of agglutinins by bacteria. They showed that if an agglutinating serum in varying dilution was treated with a constant amount of the homologous bacteria, the amount of agglutinin absorbed by the bacteria was not constant. In a concentrated serum the absolute amount absorbed was greater than when the same serum was used after dilution, whilst, on the other hand, the relative amount absorbed from the concentrated serum was less. Hitherto these experiments have been regarded as the fundamental groundwork for the whole discussion on the combination between agglutinins and bacteria. Arrhenius was the first who tried to apply the laws of physical chemistry to the question of immunity, stating that the interaction between toxins and antitoxins, explained by Ehrlich as complex, was in reality relatively simple. He stated that the combination of a toxin with its antitoxin resembled that of a weak acid-boracic for example -with ammonia, and that the combinations into which the bacterial toxins entered could be explained by the simple laws holding good in the interactions of simple chemical compounds, and without having recourse to the very complicated structures assigned by Ehrlich to diphtheria toxin or tetanus toxin, etc. These theories were mainly based on experiments carried out by Madsen. Arrhenius, from the beginning, has considered the absorption of an agglutinin by its corresponding bacteria as being the most simple one in the domain of immunity and as being entirely different to the interaction between toxins and their antitoxins.

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