Note 79 — Chapter VII · THE QUESTION OF IMMUNITY AND ANTITOXINS

It is impossible here to enter into a detailed consideration of the various views held with regard to the formation of antitoxins. It is needless to remark that the whole matter is one of abstruse technicality and intricacy. These antitoxic bodies gradually increase in the blood and tissues, and their action falls into two groups: (a) antitoxic, which counteract the effects of the poison itself; and (b) antimicrobic, which counteract the effects of the bacillus itself. "In one and the same animal the blood may contain a substance or substances which are both antitoxic and antimicrobic, such, for example, as occurs in the process of the formation of the diphtheria and tetanus antitoxic serums" (Sidney Martin).