The Organism as a Whole, from a Physicochemical Viewpoint

by Jacques Loeb

[69] Lillie, F. R., Jour. Exper. Zoöl., 1914, xvi., 523.

[70] Loeb, J., Am. Naturalist, 1915, xlix., 257.

[71] Lillie, F. R., Science, 1913, xxxviii., 524; Jour. Exper. Zoöl., 1914, xvi., 523; Biol. Bull., 1915, xxviii., 18.

[72] Lillie, F. R., loc. cit.

[73] Loeb, J., Jour. Exper. Zoöl., 1914, xvii., 123; Am. Naturalist, 1915, xlix., 257.

[74] Loeb, J., Arch. f. Entwcklngsmech., 1907, xxii., 479; Artificial Parthenogenesis and Fertiliza­tion, Chicago, 1913, p. 240.

[75] Loeb, J., Science, 1913, xxxviii., 749; Arch. f. Entwcklngsmech., 1914, xxxviii., 277; Wasteneys, H., Jour. Biol. Chem., 1916, xxiv., 281.

[76] Loeb, J., Am. Naturalist, 1915, xlix., 257.

The writer may be permitted to illustrate by a special case his reason for declining to accept Ehrlich’s side-chain theory. Ehrlich and Sachs found that if to a given mass of toxin small quantities of antitoxin are added successively the first fraction added neutralized more than the later fractions; and on the basis of this reasoning Ehrlich concluded that ten different toxins were contained in the diphtheria toxin. Arrhenius showed that the same phenomenon can be obtained when a weak base like NH₄OH is neutralized by a weak acid (e. g., boric acid); hence we should assume that NH₄OH consists of ten different forms of ammonia. Both cases, the satura­tion of toxin with antitoxin and ammonia with boric acid are equilibrium phenomena. (Arrhenius, S., Quantitative Laws in Biological Chemistry, London, 1915.)

[77] Castle, W. E., Bull. Mus. Comp. Zoöl., Harvard, 1896, xxvii., 203.