THE MECHANISM OF BACTERIOPHAGY 129 



The situation is quite different as regards the effects of the products 

 resulting from bacteriophagy. The following experiment is illustrative. 



A bouillon suspension containing 250,000,000 bacilli per cubic 

 centimeter is inoculated with 0.001 cc. of bacteriophage suspension. 

 The next morning, that is, after 14 hours, dissolution is complete. A 

 count shows that there are 1600 milHon corpuscles per cubic centi- 

 meter. At this time a concentrated bacterial suspension is added to 

 the dissolved suspension to again yield 250 million bacteria per cubic 

 centimeter. Seven hours later the medium is again clear, and a count 

 shows that there are in each cubic centimeter 2100 million corpuscles. 

 This second dissolution being completed the bacterial count is again 

 restored. This time the dissolution is not quite complete after 48 

 hours; the medium still shows a slight clouding. The count is 2400 

 million. At this time, then, the medium contains in each cubic centi- 

 meter the dissolved substance of 750,000,000 bacteria. For the fourth 

 time the suspension is made up to a bacterial count of 250 million. 

 After incubation for 8 hours the clearing is shght. The count now is 

 2600 million corpuscles. Inoculations upon agar or into broth remain 

 sterile. From this it is clear that the more concentrated the medium 

 becomes in dissolved substances the more marked becomes the inhibition 

 and the less effective the process of bacteriophagy. 



As a matter of fact, such a result is not unexpected. Bacteriophagy 

 and the resulting multiplication of corpuscles follow a general biological 

 rule. Whether it be a bacterial culture, whether it be an enzyme 

 reaction, whether it be bacteriophagy, the products resulting from all 

 biological reactions first retard, then prevent, the reaction from con- 

 tinuing indefinitely in the same medium. 



In concluding this section mention may be made of a statement by 

 Bail and Matsumoto^"^ to the effect that there should be produced, in 

 the course of bacteriophagy, as many bacteriophage corpuscles as bac- 

 teria that have been destroyed. Nothing is less true. All experimental 

 work demonstrates that the proportion of bacteriophage corpuscles 

 which are formed, in proportion to the number of bacteria destroyed, 

 may be 100 to 1, and even more. In order to demonstrate the error 

 of these authors it is only necessary to count the corpuscles after bac- 

 teriophagy of the staphylococcus. With potent races of the bacterio- 

 phage one may readily find 100,000 million corpuscles per cubic centi- 

 meter. Simply start with a staphylococcus containing 100,000 million 

 cocci per cubic centimeter and see if the statement of Bail and Mat- 

 sumoto is correct. 



