On the Photolability of Serum Complement

[摘要] There has been shown by these experiments that: 1. 1. The light-destruction may be fairly well expressed by the monomolecular formula.2. 2. The rate of the destruction is low, k varying from 0.019 to 0.050.3. 3. The temperature-influence is small or none. μ certainly does not exceed two or three thousandths—which signifies an increase in k of 1.1 to 1.7 per cent for 1°C. increase of temperature at 27°C.4. 4. Variation in lamp-distance causes changes in reaction-speed, which do not differ essentially from inverse proportionality to the light-intensity.5. 5. Dilution of serum before radiating causes not only the expected decrease of complement strength, but also alters very irregularly its magnitude. It causes, too, an increase in reaction-speed, which, however, is not parallel to the dilution-amount.6. 6. The color of serum changes obviously during radiation, from orange to dull yellow, the opalescence increasing at the same time. This is accounted for in the colorimetry.7. 7. As regards the exactness of the measurements made with this method, the primary figures have a possible error of about ± 10 per cent. The graphically found values may be regarded as more exact (about 5 per cent possible error). The k - values are chiefly found to differ within ± 12 per cent from the mean, which may be regarded as quite satisfactory. The temperature-variation in each experiment—being within ± 0.4°—may be disregarded in consequence of the insignificant temperature-influence.

[学科分类] 生物科学（综合）