86 EXPERIMENT STATION EECORD. 



A'o. 6, pp. GS.'i-65J). — It appears from this work tluit bacterial-free filtrates 

 from putrefying animal cadavers contain a beat-stabile bacteriolytic enzym 

 (for the anthrax bacillus) which has its optimum at 'M° C. The enzym content 

 of the putrefying material was found to vary with the degree of putrefaction — 

 the further the putrefying process proceeds, the lower the enzym content will 

 be. The enzym can be precipitated with Nessler's reagent and hydrochloric 

 acid, but not with tannic acid. 



A lethal infection with putrefying anthrax material for experimental animals 

 was not possible, because the virulence had already been disturbed before 

 inoculation. The enzym was also not capable of checking an already existing 

 anthrax bacteremia in mice. As the putrefying anthrax-bactericidal material 

 was in itself toxic, it was not possible to protect against a subsequent infection 

 with anthrax bacteria. 



[Anthrax outbreak on university farm], H. L. Russell {Wisconsin Sta. 

 Bid. 203, pp. 7-9). — This is a brief description of an outbreak of anthrax in 

 the university herd and the manner in which it was handled. The general 

 opinion that hogs do not acquire anthrax unless fed on anthrax-infected car- 

 casses was found to be erroneous, as it is concluded that the death of several 

 hogs in the herd must have come from soil infection. 



The specific cure of yaws with dioxydiamidoarsenobenzol, R. P. Strong 

 (Philippine Jour. ScL, B. Med. Set., 5 {1910), No. J,, pp. J,S3--',51, pis. U).— 

 Reports are presented of 25 cases of yaws or frambesia treated with salvarsan. 

 This drug appears to be an ideal specific for the disease. " Three or 4 days 

 after the injection of the drug, the granulomatous lesions begin to disappear 

 and in the course of from 10 to 20 days they usually have disappeared entirely 

 leaving a perfectly smooth, pigmented skin where the lesions previously 

 existed." 



The treatment of yaws (frambesia) with arsenobenzol (salvarsan), R. P. 

 Strong {Jour. Expt. Med., 13 {1911), No. 4, pp. 412-Jfl5, j)ls. 2). — A preliminary 

 account of the iuA-estigations reported in the article noted above. 



The curative efEect of salvarsan (" 606 ") in cases of frambesia, H. Alston 

 (Brit. Med. Jour., 1911, No. 2616, pp. 360, 36t).— The author finds that the 

 serum of patients treated with salvarsan is capable of producing an improve- 

 ment in other cases of yaws not less marked than that produced by the drug 

 itself, also that the serum of the patients thus treated with serum possesser' 

 the same property. Control experiments show that it is essential that the 

 serum be derived from a patient suffering from yaws and that the serum be 

 taken when the patient is under the influence of salvarsan. 



The curative efEect of salvarsan in frambesia, H. Alston (Brit. Med. Jour., 

 1911, No. 2620, p. 618). — "The experiments in Trinidad have contributed to 

 knowledge in 4 directions: (1) The serum of cases recovering under salvarsan 

 has been shown to have a curative effect; (2) nostril yaws tubercles are not 

 affected by salvarsan nor by serum; (3) the milk of a goat injected with sal- 

 varsan has a curative effect; and (4) soamin and orsudan are the only organic 

 compounds — excluding salvarsan, of course — that cause some benefit in yaws." 



The complement fixation reaction of rabies, N. A. Dobrowolskaja (Centbl. 

 Bakt. [etc.], 1. AM., Orig., 56 (1910), No. 2, pp. 177-183) .—As a result of im- 

 munizing dogs against rabies, bodies are pi'oduced in the blood which give a 

 definite complement binding or fixation reaction with specific antigens. The 

 reaction, according to the author, for the present has no practical significance, 

 because at times it can be produced with nonspecific antigens. An effort to 

 determine specific substances (with brain substance fi'om rabid animals) in the 

 blood with the reaction resulted in showing that a positive« test could also be 

 obtained with the blood from normal dogs at the height of digestion. 



