Decreasing temperature suppressed rabbit erythrocyte hemolysis induced by Staphylococcus aureus α-toxin. The percent hemolysis (%H) was measured over 60 minutes under either (A) chronic or (B) acute challenge at different temperatures as follows; 37°C (control) (•), 25°C (□), 4°C (▲) either before toxin addition (chronic) or at about 20% hemolysis (indicated by the bar and arrow – “temperature change”). The panels labeled (ii) show the %H data at t = 60 minutes plotted as a function of temperature, and the panels labeled (iii) show the rate of change of %H/10 min plotted as a function of temperature. Results are means ± SEM from (4(2)), that is, from 4 independent experiments and 2 replicates for each experiment.