322 THE BACTERIOPHAGE AND ITS BEHAVIOR 



the present time isolated active bacteriophage races. Consequently it 

 was impossible for me to compare the phenomenon of bacteriophagy 

 with an autolytic process which did not occur The new method of 

 Jaumain, effecting autolysis in a Hmited amount of air, now renders such 

 a comparison possible since it may be applied to the staphylococcus for 

 which effective bacteriophages are available. It is only fair to add that 

 Jaumain, a collaborator of Bordet, was the first to note that the liquid 

 resulting from autolysis in confined air does not cause a dissolution of a 

 fresh suspension of the homologous bacteria. 



I have performed the experiment according to Jaumain's technic 

 using strains of the staphylococcus for which I had a very active bac- 

 teriophage. This, naturally, anticipates any objection that the strains 

 of the staphylococcus used were of a type which would not lend itself 

 to bacteriophagy. 



The experiment was performed with three different strains of the 

 staphylococcus, and for each I demonstrated : 



First, that suspensions in bouillon remained indefinitely turbid (6 

 months) and that such suspensions filtered serially did not cause the 

 phenomenon of bacteriophagy; they were, therefore, not contaminated 

 by a bacteriophage principle; 



Second, that suspensions in bouillon were dissolved completely in less 

 than 36 hours through the action of an added bacteriophage principle, 

 the phenomenon being reproducible in series indefinitely, either with or 

 without filtration between each passage. The dissolution was always 

 complete, without any residue. 



Pure suspensions of these staphylococcus strains in bouillon, with- 

 out the addition of any substance whatever were sealed in tubes with a 

 limited amount of air. Within a period of from 2 to 4 days at 37 °C. 

 they were completely autolyzed. 



Everyone who has wished to liken the phenomenon of bacteriophagy 

 to autolytic processes has assumed, and, indeed, they could offer no 

 other explanation, that the bacteria in being dissolved through the 

 action of a filtrate, liberate into the medium the autolysin which they 

 contained. Autolysis in confi7ied air is induced necessarily by the action 

 of an autolysin normally present in the bacterium and this autolysin 

 must be liberated into the medium when the bacteria undergo 

 dissolution. 



This is, then, the autolytic process which has been advanced as an 

 explanation of the phenomenon of bacteriophagy, and it is evident that 

 if this hypothesis is correct, the limpid liquid which is obtained when 



