312 THE BACTERIOPHAGE AND ITS BEHAVIOR 



and second, the nutritive vitiation is hereditary, a conception rendered 

 obHgatory to explain the continuity of action in vitro, since obviously 

 the original leucocytic product must disappear in the course of succes- 

 sive passages. Let us consider the rational basis of these two ideas, as 

 well as the experimental data leading to their formulation. 



1. Bordet and Ciuca gave guinea-pigs several intraperitoneal injec- 

 tions of a culture of B. coli. A few hours after the last injection they 

 removed some of the peritoneal exudate and demonstrated that it 

 contained a principle lysogenic for B. coli. Thus, they concluded that 

 the primum movens in transmissible bacterial dissolution resided in the 

 leucocytes. In their first communication, they announced the early 

 publication of comparable experiments carried out with other bacterial 

 species. This publication has never appeared, doubtless for good 

 reasons. 



Let us observe first that such an experiment does not prove the point. 

 The bacteriophage principle may always be found in the intestine, and, 

 we know that normally, the intestinal bacteria can gain entrance to 

 the circulation. In the horse, for example, we know that during the 

 digestive period the blood always contains bacteria, B. coli in particu- 

 lar. It may be, then, quite normal for bacteriophage corpuscles to 

 penetrate the walls of the intestine and appear in the peritoneal cavity 

 because of the irritation induced by the injection of bacteria 

 (d'Herelle,336). 



But this same experiment, the result of which is so inconclusive, does 

 not constantly give the results described (d'Herelle^^s-j^ j have 

 attempted to repeat it, to satisfy myself as to the reasons why Bordet 

 has not pubHshed further results on this phase of the subject. Upon 

 several occasions, I have subjected guinea-pigs to repeated injections of 

 B. coli, B. dysenteriae, or B. typhosus, but in no case have I been able to 

 obtain an exudate containing the dissolving principle. 



Furthermore, if the primum movens of the phenomenon of bacteri- 

 ophagy is resident within the leucocytes, it should suffice to take the 

 leucocytes of an experimentally hyperimmunized animal, to introduce 

 them into a bacterial culture and thus provoke the phenomenon. 

 Experiment shows that this is impossible. I have tried several times to 

 isolate a bacteriophage principle from the leucocytic layer which rests 

 on the clot after coagulation of the blood of horses which v/ere produc- 

 ing anti-dysentery serum, that is, horses which had been receiving for 

 several months, and in some instances for years, injections of dysentery 

 bacilli. Without exception it has been impossible to detect in such 



