A characteristic feature of malignant growths is the occurrence of degeneration, usually in the more central portions of the growth. It is therefore possible that antibodies might make their appearance in the blood plasma in respect of the dead material thus set free. The presence of such antibodies could be sought for in several ways, for example, by observing if any of the insoluble constituents of the tumour could be agglutinated or caused to dissolve, or any of the soluble constituents obtainable from the growth could be precipitated, by the blood serum of the hose. There is, however, another way of testing for the production of such antibodies, namely, by observing if the serum when mixed with the tumour, or with a watery or alcoholic extract of the tumour, can fix complement. In this case the method followed is an application of the observation of Bordet, that an immune serum contains a thermostable substance (amboceptor or immune body), which when mixed with the antigen which has been employed to determine its production is capable of absorbing complement. So far as I can ascertain from a search of the literature of complement deviation, no investigation on these lines has, up to the present, been made in connection with malignant growths. It was therefore, decided to test for the presence of antibodies in respect of malignant growths, using in the first instance the method of complement fixation. For the purpose of investigation carcinoma of the mouse appeared exceedingly suitable, since it affords a condition which is readily producible and represents a single pathological entity, the same strain of tumour being inoculable from animal so long as may be desired. Only under such circumstances is it possible to make a comparative series of observations under conditions of experiment which are throughout identical in respect of the tumour employed.
Clamber of the dead: material ontology and cosmological affect within the hunter-gatherer mortuary traditions of the Eastern Baltic 4000-3000 cal. BC
