392 THE BACTERIOPHAGE AND ITS BEHAVIOR 



Bruynoghe and Maisin^22 confirmed these experiments, as did also 

 Gratia and Jaumain.^^i But while unquestionably an antiserum for 

 the Shiga-bacteriophage contains a sensitizer which fixes alexin in the 

 presence of a suspension of the Staphylo-bacteriophage, it also appears 

 that this crossed fixation may be observed when, instead of using sus- 

 pensions of the bacteriophage as antigens, bacterial autolysates of any 

 species whatever, are employed. It is, then, the bacterium which 

 contains the common antigen. - 



I must, and do, willingly, recognize experiments well performed, and 

 I reahze that had my data been correct and complete the conclusions 

 which I drew would not have been presented.* 



Does the inoculation of an animal with protobes of any land, the 

 agents of vaccinia and of rabies, for example, provoke the formation 

 of sensitizers? This is a question which has been discussed freely, 

 some investigators supporting their opinion by aflarmative experiments, 

 others confirming their point of view by negative results. Whatever 

 may be the truth of the matter, it is obvious that the contradictory 

 evidence proves, at least, that sensitizers for the protobes, if they exist 

 at all, are certainly of but little potency . 



6. NATURE OF THE ANTIBACTERIOPHAGIC PROPERTY 



Immediately after Bordet and Ciuca pubHshed their paper^^ an- 

 nouncing that the injection of an animal with suspensions of the bac- 

 teriophage caused the serum of this animal to manifest an antibacterio- 

 phagic property, and that by contact with such a serum the bacterio- 

 phage was destroyed, I carried out with Ehava^^^ some experiments in 

 which we showed that, under the same conditions, the bacteriophage 

 was not destroyed. The inactivation of bacteriophagic action was 

 simply an inhibition. 



We prepared a mixture of equal parts of an antiserum for the Shiga- 

 bacteriophage and of a suspension of the Shiga-bacteriophage. This 

 mixture was allowed to stand for 5 days under conditions which would 

 favor a destruction of the corpuscles by the antiserum if such a de- 

 structive action was present. After contact between the two sub- 

 stances for the 5 days the mixture was tested to ascertain the condi- 

 tion of the bacteriophage. Three tubes, each containing 10 cc. of 



* It may be remarked, however, that it is conceivable that the common antigen 

 is some of the bacterial substances which have been transformed through bac- 

 teriophagy, even though the bacteriophage corpuscles themselves are not this 

 antigen. 



