The Effect of Temperature on Certain Simple Haemolytic Systems

THIS paper is primarily concerned with an attempt to evaluate the temperature coefficients for the velocity of haemolysis in two simple haemolytic systems, the lysin being saponin in the first and sodium taurocholate in the second. There is nothing in the literature to suggest that the problem is one of any complexity, for Arrhenius (1915) and his collaborators, by whom most of the existing investigations have been carried out, find that the effect of temperature is adequately described by the well-known Arrhenius equation, the values of /n ranging from 26,000 when acetic, butyric, or proprionic acids are used as lysins to 38,000 when the lysin is sodium oleate. Their methods, however, are very unsatisfactory, for either the concentration of the lysin or the "time of action" (i.e. time required for the production of a particular degree of haemolysis) is fixed arbitrarily; further, the observations are made over a short temperature range, and usually between 20 and 40. Such experiments are too restricted to show the complete effects of temperature on the haemolytic systems, and, as will be shown below, lead to quite erroneous results. The study of the effect of temperature on simple haemolytic systems has a significance quite apart from any information which it may supply regarding the nature or the kinetics of the haemolytic process, for the system under consideration is one of much less complexity than those usually studied. Most of the recent work on the effect of temperature on biological systems has been devoted to finding the temperature coefficients for such processes as contraction in muscle, conduction in nerve, the movement of whole animals, etc.; sometimes the effect of temperature on the phenomenon has been found to be in accordance with the Arrhenius equation, sometimes not. It is of considerable interest, accordingly, to find to what extent such an equation describes the effect of temperature on simple systems such as those dealt with in this paper, especially when the effects in such systems can be subjected to a much more detailed analysis than is usually possible in investigations of this kind.