278 



Raymond Latarjet 



but succinic peroxide introduces some acidity which must be 

 taken into account by suitable controls in certain experiments. 

 If, in order to keep the pH at a given value, one dilutes the 

 peroxide in an acetate buffer, the titre in peroxidic oxygen, 

 and consequently the activity, remains unchanged. However, 

 we did confirm that the results which are reported in this 

 paper were actually due to the chemical effect of the peroxide, 

 not to acidity. 



Inactivation of bacteria by peroxide 



Bacteria were washed, then resuspended in saline in the 

 presence of peroxide. At given times, aliquots were diluted 



3 6 9 12 15 



MINUTES OF CONTACT 



Fig. 1. Inactivation of growing Esch. coli B by succinic 



peracid. 



