380 EXPERIMENT STATION EECORD. 



set free more or less completely, and to the extent that if it is detached it 

 becomes a poison; (5) the pathogenicity of a bacterium is not determined by 

 its capability of forming a poison, but (6) is dependent upon its ability to 

 grow and multiply in the animal body; (7) any foreign protein which can 

 grow and multiply in the body of a given animal may prove pathogenic to 

 that animal; (8) the infectious diseases result from parenteral protein diges- 

 tion; (9) natural immunity to any infection is due to inability of the infecting 

 agent to grow in the animal body; (10) the immunity which is due to recovery 

 from an infection is the result of the development in the body during the course 

 of the infection of a specific ferment which immediately destroys the infection 

 on renewed exposure; (11) immunity established by vaccination is similar to 

 that induced by an attack of the disease; (12) protein sensitization and bac- 

 terial Immunity, apparently antipodal, are in reality identical; (13) protein 

 sensitization consists in developing in the animal body a specific proteolytic 

 ferment which digests the same protein on reinjection; (14) when a foreign 

 protein is introduced into the blood of an animal it soon leaves the circulating 

 fluid and is distributed throughout the tissues; (15) vaccines are protein 

 sensitizers; (16) toxin immunity and bacterial immunity are radically dif- 

 ferent; (17) the protein poison is not a toxin; (18) the protein poison is not 

 specific; (19) the tolerance which may be secured by the protein poison is 

 not specific; (20) the sensitization developed by a protein is specific, but is 

 not due to the poisonous group in the protein; (21) different proteins find 

 in the body certain predilection places in which they are most prone to accu- 

 mulate; (22) the symptoms of a given disease are largely determined by the 

 location of the foreign protein; (23) the poison elaborated in all the infectious 

 diseases is the same; and (24) when a cell in the animal body is permeated 

 by a foreign protein, the former strives to elaborate a ferment by which the 

 latter is destroyed. 



The remaining chapters deal with the growth of massive cultures of bacteria ; 

 the chemistry of bacterial cellular substances; the cleavage of proteins with 

 dilute alkali in solution in absolute alcohol ; action on animals ; the production 

 of active immunity with the split products of the colon bacillus; the split 

 products of the tubercle bacillus and their effects on animals; the anthrax 

 protein; the cellular substance of the pneumococcus ; protein sensitization; 

 parenteral digestion; protein fever; specific ferments of the cancer cell; and 

 the phenomena of infection. 



The carbohydrate metabolism and the internal secretion, P. Hockendorf 

 (Der Kohlehydratstoffwechsel tmd die innere Sekretion. Berlin, 1912, pp. 126).— 

 This book deals with the interrelationships of the various internal secretions 

 and discusses, on the basis of the newer findings, the part played by these 

 secretions in the diseases of metabolism. 



A further study of the distribution of prussic acid in the flax plant, J. W. 

 Inge {North Dakota Sta. Bui. 106, pp. 30-46). — This is a report of further inves- 

 tigations (E. S. R., 28, p. 477) of the poisonous principle contained in the flax 

 plant. Analyses of about 80 samples of flax straw, chaff, screenings, the entire 

 flax plant, and young flax for the seasons of 1911 and 1912 are reported with 

 notes upon the character of the samples, with special reference to the percentage 

 of prussic acid present. Some experiences of other experiment station workers 

 and farmers in regard to the toxic action of flax products are cited. 



The author finds that all flax materials evidently contain some of the poison, 

 which varies with the stage of maturity of the flax, the part of the plant, and 

 the species of flax, and also with some external conditions, such as weathering. 



" While this poison in flax substances may not always become liberated and 

 active enough to be fatal to animals who eat it, nevertheless it is necessary for 



