414 THE BACTERIOPHAGE AND ITS BEHAVIOR 



But however that may be, insofar as opsonic activity is concerned, 

 whatever may be the agent which is operative, it is certain that during 

 the course of bacteriophagy some product is formed which possesses a 

 very considerable opsonic action. 



Although the normal habitat of the bacteriophage is the intestinal 

 tract, it is able to pass into the circulation, and thence into the tis- 

 sues (d'Herelle3i«-3i^). 



The presence of the bacteriophage within the tissues does not cause 

 any detectable disturbance (d'Herelle^^^). 



Bacteriophage corpuscles introduced into the body by a parenteral 

 route behave hke the spores of saprophytic bacteria. They are elim- 

 inated quickly from the circulation, and are to be found last in the 

 spleen (Appelmans^^) . 



The repeated injection of an animal with suspensions of the bacterio- 

 phage causes the appearance in the serum of an antibacteriophagic 

 property (Bordet and Ciuca^^). 



The intensity of the antigenic properties of different races of the 

 bacteriophage is highly variable (Otto, Munter and Winkler^^'') . 



Within a single bacteriophage suspension the sensitivity to the 

 inhibiting action of an antibacteriophagic serum varies greatly from 

 one corpuscle to another (Prausnitz^^") . 



Different races of the bacteriophage behave very differently toward 

 an antibacteriophagic serum (Otto, Munter and Winkler^^") . 



An antibacteriophagic serum does not destroy the bacteriophage 

 corpuscles; the effect is an inhibition of their action (d'Herelle and 

 EHava359)_ 



The inhibition of bacteriophagic action by an antiserum has no 

 points of resemblance to a neutralization of a toxin by the homologous 

 antitoxin. The inhibitory effect is not that of a sensitizer (d'Herelle^-*^). 



The nature of the reaction of an antibacteriophagic serum upon the 

 bacteriophage is not distinctive; this type of reaction is common to 

 all anti-protobian sera. The injection of a protobe (ultra virus) of 

 any kind into an animal leads to the appearance of a specific "anti- 

 viruhn" in the serum (d'Herelle^''^) . 



Antibacterial sera exert an inhibitory action upon bacteriophagy 

 (BaiF). This inhibitory action is entirely different from the inhibi- 

 tory action of an antibacteriophagic serum on the protobe itself. The 

 antibacterial serum does not modify the bacteriophage (Hauduroy^"). 



