532 THE BACTERIOPHAGE 



six hours of the experiment the amount of CO2 produced was too small to be detected." 

 (n the assumption that the bacteriophage did respire, it was calculated that its 

 respiration would have to be at least ten thousand times slower than that of an equal 

 number (lo^^) of spores not to be detected in ninety-six hours. It is generally observed 

 that the smaller the living organism, and consequently the greater its surface per gram 

 of mass, the higher is its rate of respiration. Since the size of a "corpuscle" of 

 Bacteria phagum intestinale must be but a small fraction of the size of a bacterial spore, 

 it would be expected that the rate of its respiration should be greater than that of a 

 spore. Hence, the finding that the rate of respiration of the unit (quantum) of phage 

 is at least ten thousand times less than that of the spore seems to indicate that the 

 phage probably does not respire at all. Moreover, when Bacteria phagum intestinale 

 is in the process of active "multiplication," as is assumed to be the case in the pres- 

 ence of susceptible bacteria, the rate of respiration of the whole culture (when cor- 

 rected for the higher rate of multiplication of bacteria in the presence of bacteriophage) 

 was found to be the same as that of a control culture without the bacteriophage.^ 

 Essentially similar conclusions were reached by several investigators who studied 

 the independent metabolism of phage as expressed in terms of its reducing power. 

 The findings of Fejgin,-' of Gozony and Suranyi,^ Kauffmann,^ and those of Schwarz- 

 man,^ as well as our own experiments^ indicate that the rate of reduction by the culture 

 of susceptible bacteria grown in the presence of bacteriophage is entirely independent 

 of the concentration of the active agent, but rises and falls with the number of intact 

 bacteria present during the various phases of the process. 



THE MECHANISM OF INACTIVATION OF PHAGE BY ANTISERUM 



Another type of experiment which might indicate indirectly whether the active 

 agent might be an autonomous corpuscular being is that showing the nature of the 

 reaction which takes place between the agent and its specific antibody. According to 

 Bordet, the active agent is destroyed by antiserum. If the phage is an organized cor- 

 puscular virus, one might expect by analogy with what is known about the mode of 

 action of bactericidal sera that a virucidal action of antibacteriophage serum would 

 require the co-operation of complement for its completion. The results of this in- 

 quiry have shown, 7 in accord with earlier findings of Bail,^ that inactivated antibac- 

 teriophage serum is capable of neutralizing the activity of the phage, just as efficient- 

 ly as did the same serum previous to destruction of its complement. With the ex- 

 ception of Osumi,'' a number of authors have since come to similar conclusions." They 



' Since the last published report, and after a further improvement of apparatus, the experiments 

 were carried over a period of ten days, but always without being able to detect CO^ production by 

 the phage. 



^Unpublished experiments (19:^5) in collaboration with Dr. Reichert. 



3 Fejgin, B : Compt. rend. Soc. de bioL, 90, 1200. 1924. 



4 Gozony, L., and Suranyi, L.: quoted from Clicin. Abstr., 20, 92S. 1926. 

 sKautTmann, F.: Zlscliv.f. II y^- u. InJ'tLiii)Hski\i>ikli., 105, 594. 1926. 



^ Schwartzman, CI.: CentraM. f. Baklviiol., loi, 62. 192O. 



7 Unpublished experiments in co-operation with Dr. Kerb, 1923. 



8 Bail, O.: loc cU. » Osumi, S.: loc. cit. 

 '"Walanabc, T.: loc. cil.; Seiffert, \V.: loc. cil.; Wagemans, J.: loc. cit. 



