Five Quarts_ A Personal and Natural History of Blood - Bill Hayes [59]
Medical historians today distill Ehrlich’s presentation to three main points, two of which were correct and one that was wrong but forgivable. He was right in theorizing that blood cells have the capacity to form antibodies even before a particular antigen has entered the body. Also right was his conception of these antibodies as, in essence, locks waiting for the right keys; and the related notion that, once a lock was activated, the production of many more antibodies was stimulated. Ehrlich was mistaken, though, in believing that all cells could produce such antibodies; in fact, only B lymphocytes can.
Historians also agree that Ehrlich’s argument was not just sound but very convincing. Adding to the impact of his spoken word was a series of provocative drawings. Now, it should be noted that the use of visual aids in a lecture to the Royal Society was not at all unusual, but his were unique for being of imagined constructs, renderings of the theoretical goings-on in the blood. Even though the best microscopes of the day did not allow Paul Ehrlich to see this activity, in his mind’s eye the images were clear. And were now on display. A sequence unfolded: First a standard cell was shown—a light-colored, spongy moon erupting with what looked like sweat beads off the brow of a comic-strip character. These were Ehrlich’s side chains, which frankly did not in any way appear chain-like. Next, some of the sweat beads were gripped by toxins, the villainous elements, which were horned and black. Others then broke free—the heroic antitoxins—and, now resembling lithe, silvery minnows, swam off into the blood.
Ehrlich, aware that not everyone in the audience would share his certainty, cautioned that the forms and shapes in his diagrams should be considered as “purely arbitrary.” At best, they were simply an educated guess. Some scientists did not take this caveat to heart, however. In the weeks and months to follow, critics griped that his ridiculous “cartoons” had conveyed more of a conclusion than a possibility. His chief detractor dubbed them a “puerile graphical representation.” If the criticism was meant to elicit a retraction of some sort, it didn’t work. In fact, whenever Ehrlich subsequently spoke about his side-chain theory, he would take the opportunity to illustrate it. Stories abounded of how Dr. Ehrlich, even in casual conversation with colleagues, would scribble out drawings of the minuscule players of his theory on whatever blank surface was available. When no paper was handy, he’d opt for, say, his hostess’s tablecloth, a listener’s shirt cuff, or the sole of his shoe. If necessary, he’d roll back the carpet, then use chalk on the floorboards. And once, over dinner, in a performance I’m sad to have missed, he storyboarded his entire molecular drama on fifty postcards, an indulgent waiter having kept the doctor in steady supply.
Martha Marquardt, who entered his employ in 1902, adored this quality in her boss. “When his mind was entirely filled with a certain idea,” she wrote, he spoke of it with animation and in a great gallop of words. “He perceived the idea as if it had a physical existence,” and he always wanted visitors to see it along with him. To make sure a person was keeping up, Dr. Ehrlich might tap him or her “lightly on the arm or chest with the point of a coloured pencil, with a test tube, a cigar or his thick-rimmed spectacles which he frequently took off and swung about. . . .” Drawing to a finish, “he stood with his head pushed forward a little, his gentle face upraised,” and “looked penetratingly at the other person with his big bright eyes.” Do you see what I see?
Dr. Ehrlich never actually got to view the drama within the blood. But what was to him the most likely scenario involving the most likely suspects can now be clearly photographed with an electron microscope, the same technology used to produce those ugly mug shots of minute insects, with their bulbous compound eyes. The electron microscope, thousands of times stronger than the traditional compound microscope, has also captured images