Letter from Michael Heidelberger to Manfred M. Mayer, Johns Hopkins University

In this letter to Mayer, his former graduate student and collaborator in his research on complement, Heidelberger offered comments on the draft of an article by Mayer on the kinetics (the rate and process) of hemolysis, the rupture of the membrane of red blood cells (erythrocytes) and the release of hemoglobin, caused, in Mayer's experiments, by antibodies in the form of complement-dependent lysis (rupture). Complement, a complex system of over twenty serum proteins, plays an essential enzymatic role in host defense mechanisms against invading organisms.