io8 BACTERIAL ASSOCIATIONS 



pathogens in the wound), and, itself producing no harmful products, it further hy- 

 drolyzed the toxic bacterial products present or being formed. Bumm' used a durable 

 preparation brought out by Zeissler called "neocolysin." It was made up of living, 

 albuminolytic bacteria and gave good results in chronic purulent conditions such as 

 osteomyelitis. The bacteria were supposed to function as in Donaldson's method and 

 continued growing as long as there was dead tissue available. Gratia and Dath^ dis- 

 covered an aerobic streptothrix which had a powerful destructive action on a variety 

 of bacteria. It did not act on B. tuberculosis and showed no lipolytic enzyme. Fil- 

 trates were equally effective, could act without free oxygen, but were somewhat 

 variable. The active substance was better developed in old cultures and was fairly 

 stable. The dissolved bacteria caused specific response when used for vaccination. 

 They referred to a similar organism reported by Lieske in 1921, but his studies were 

 confined to solid media. Rosenthal worked with an organism apparently very much 

 like the foregoing, and found it was antagonistic to many bacteria including B. diph- 

 iheriae. He referred to the report of Gasperini of 1890 on a similar form acting against 

 bacteria. Rosenthal and his associates'" found that it could be implanted in the in- 

 testines of guinea pigs and that when injected parenterally it was enterotropic. 

 Much and Sartorius^ used a strain of B. mycoides and showed similar effects, by cul- 

 ture and filtrates, on many bacteria and that the dissolved bacteria had not lost their 

 antigenic properties. A very interesting study by Gratia and Rhodes^ proved that 

 living staphylococcus could live on killed suspensions of staphylococci in saline or in 

 saline agar made cloudy with killed staphylococci. Thus we see that bacteria can and 

 do remetabolize their own substances or that of other bacteria, and this helps in the 

 understanding of the antagonistic action of many forms of bacteria. They are indeed 

 cannibalistic. 



DIPHTHERIA GROUP 



Because of the pressing problem in carriers of the diphtheria bacillus, special at- 

 tention has been given to researches for a possible biological method, through bac- 

 terial antagonism, which would be effective in treating these cases. Streptococci and 

 B. diphtheriae have long been considered mutually helpful in producing severe infec- 

 tions in the throat. There is an extensive literature on this topic. Roux and Yersin,^ 

 in studying the problem of the return of virulence in attenuated cultures of B. diph- 

 theriae, were successful in accomplishing this by injecting the attenuated culture 

 along with a non-fatal dose of an erysipelas strain of streptococcus. The virulence 

 returned, and it was retained on successive cultures. They therefore warned against 

 the use of Streptococcus erysipelatos to combat diphtheria as had been suggested by 



'Bumm: Arch.f. klin. Cliir., 138, iii. 1925. 



^Gratia, A., and Dath, S.: Compt. rend. Soc. de hiol., 91, 1442. 1924; 92, 461, 1125. 1925; 

 93, 451. 1925; 94, 1267. 1926. 



3 Rosenthal, L.: ibid., 93, 77. 1925. 



'•Rosenthal, L.: Hid., 94, 309, 1059, 1926; 95, 10. 1926. 



sMuch, H., and Sartorius, F.: Med. Klin., 20, 347. 1924. 



^ Gratia, A., and Rhodes, B.: Compt. rend. Soc. de biol., 90, 640. 1924. 



' Roux, E., and Yersin, A: Ann. de I'Inst. Pasteur, 4, 385. iSgo. 



