72 SCIENCE PROGRESS. 



phate, the toxine of tetanus resembles proteids as well as 

 many other substances, it is concluded that the specific 

 tetanus poison does not belong to the group of proteids, 

 since it does not conform to the chemical behaviour of 

 the members of this class. The amorphous cholera 

 poison has also been studied by Brieger and Cohn, by 

 cultivating upon Ouchinsky's medium without the mag- 

 nesium sulphate. In the ordinary acceptation of the term 

 this also appears not to be a proteid body. 



The toxines isolated by these authors doubtless repre- 

 sent a highly concentrated form of the poison, since 'i 3 

 mg. would be the lethal dose for an adult man. Its 

 virulence is evident when compared with atropin and 

 strychnine, 130 mg. and 30-100 mg. being the smallest 

 lethal doses of these alkaloids. Still it is possible that this 

 research has not yielded the specific toxine. It is proved 

 by the investigations of many workers that the amorphous 

 products of micro-organisms may be both harmful and 

 beneficial to the organism; these bodies may appear as an 

 expression of the synthetic activity of certain bacteria, and 

 may even exist within the protoplasm, but the essential 

 physical and chemical characters of substances which 

 may be as imponderable as enzymes are at present un- 

 known. Just as the manifestation of peptic or amylolytic 

 power is the only available test of the presence of pepsin 

 or ptyalin, so the specific intoxications produced by the 

 poisons of specific micro-organisms are in many cases far 

 more characteristic and defining than the application of 

 any chemical or physical tests which, at the present time, 

 are at our disposal. 



George A. Buckmastek. 



