Calcium and Complement Action

has expressed the view that the active complement responsible for immune haemolysis is none other than the soaps normally occurring in the serum. He postulates that the general haemolytic properties of these compounds are suppressed by other constituents of the serum, proteins and calcium compounds, so that haemolysis results only in the presence of the sensitising substance. Thus this author claims to be able to prepare an artificial complement by adding to heat-inactivated rabbit serum a methyl alcoholic solution of calcium oleate, the mixture obtained being haemolytic towards sensitised cells but having no effect on unsensitised cells. Similar solutions have been prepared by Freund [1923], who used an aqueous solution of calcium oleate and the globulin fraction of bovine serum. Schmidt [1924], however, has been unable to repeat these results and states that the solutions obtained have no specific action on sensitised cells. Liebermann himself appears to have experienced difficulty in this respect and attributes it partly to the impossibility of obtaining suitable methyl alcohol. Although he maintains that his artificial complement will give satisfactory results when used instead of natural complement in the Wassermann reaction, he admits that some improvement in the technique of preparation is necessary before it can be used extensively in practice.