The velocity of reaction in the “absorption” of specific agglutinins by bacteria, and in the “adsorption" of agglutinins, trypsin, and sulphuric acid by animal charcoal

Abstract

Arrhenius, in his different papers dealing with equilibria in absorption processes, has used the alleged differences in velocity of reaction between the absorption of agglutinin by bacteria and the adsorption of a dye by a fibre, to assist his conclusion that these processes are of different natures. While a fair number of observation (Bordet, Bayliss, Hedin, etc.) exist as to the influence of time on the so-called adsorption processes, e . g ., the adsorption of an acid by charcoal, or of a dye by a fibre, proving that it takes a very considerable time before equilibrium is reached, the study of the time reaction in the taking up of agglutinins by bacteria has been confined to the following brief statements of Eisenberg and Volk, that the velocity of reaction is extremely fast and that equilibrium is reached even in five minutes at a temperature of 0° C., and that no appreciable difference was to be traced in the absorption velocity whether the reaction took place at 0° C. or at 37° C.