338 BIOLOGY OF PNEUMOCOCCUS 



peutic Type I antipneumococcic serum, they were low in agglu- 

 tinins, contained no precipitins, possessed no remarkable opsonic 

 powers, and displayed no direct bactericidal action. 



The idea was revived in 1930 by Banzhaf and Curphey, 71 who 

 combined in horses intramuscular injections of phenolized pneu- 

 mococcal pleural exudates with intravenous injections of the for- 

 malinized sediment from broth cultures of pneumococci. When 

 tested by Goodner's method the therapeutic value of the serum was 

 disproportionate to the mouse-protective action, which fact Banz- 

 haf and Curphey interpreted as indicating the possible presence 

 of added therapeutic substances in the serum resulting from the 

 addition of exudate to the usual method of immunization. 



Toxins and Hemotoxins 



SO-CALLED TOXINS 



The possible existence of toxins either in the pneumococcal cell 

 or resulting from its metabolic processes has already been dis- 

 cussed in Chapter III. It is extremely doubtful if Pneumococcus 

 possesses or produces a true toxin, but the idea still survives, and 

 the action of some therapeutic serums, quite apart from their 

 tropic, agglutinative, precipitative, or protective effects, in amel- 

 iorating the intoxication of pneumonia in man, has encouraged 

 the search for a toxic principle with the hope of producing an 

 antitoxin. 



The Klemperers (1892) 725 were convinced that they had suc- 

 ceeded in isolating a toxic protein from Pneumococcus, which they 

 named "Pneumotoxin," but the action of the substance can now be 

 explained on other grounds. In 1897, Auld 30 separated an albu- 

 mose and an organic acid from local lesions, lungs, and spleens of 

 animals infected with Pneumococcus. No adequate proof could be 

 obtained that the protein was a true toxin, but Auld intimated that 

 a true toxin might in all probability be united with the protein. 

 The albumose preparations had a certain immunizing value, but no 



