Type Specific Antigenicity Within A Single Species Of Bacteria, Using Type II and Type III Diplococcus pneumoniae

Abstract

Antigenicity, the property of an organism or molecule to stimulate the production of specific antibodies upon its introduction into an animal body, is one of the most vital phenomena in nature to aid in the survival of a species and its individual members If it were not for this, the animal body would not be able to cope with the onslaught of foreign material, especially bacterial, and be able to set up defense mechanisms to aid in its survival. This property of many foreign substances of being antigenic, thus causing defense antibody formation, may well have been one of the determining factors of evolutionary success or failure.