508 BIOLOGY OF PNEUMOCOCCUS 



kaloid, cinchona. Because of the relative unimportance of all 

 chemical agents so far tested, with the exception of the cinchona 

 compounds, the discussion of all but the last-named group will be 

 presented in summarized form. 



Chemical Agents Other Than Cinchona Derivatives 



BILE 



Powerful as is the action of whole bile or of sodium salts of the 

 bile acids in the dissolution of the pneumococcal cell in the test 

 tube, the lytic effect on pneumococci in the body is much less pro- 

 nounced. Pneumococci, circulating in the blood or present in le- 

 sions or cavities accessible to the agent, may undergo lysis, but 

 that is only one feature of the effect, because the physiological ac- 

 tion of injected bile salts in a large measure offsets any benefits to 

 be derived from the dissolution of the cocci. Barjot (1928) 79 

 treated a few cases of lobar pneumonia by the intravenous admin- 

 istration of sodium taurocholate in an artificial serum containing 

 magnesium sulfate, but the small number of patients and the na- 

 ture of the results would scarcely seem to justify the author's 

 faith in the benefits to be derived from the treatment. Ziegler, 1570 

 employing saline solutions of the sodium salts of taurocholic and 

 glycocholic acids, reported, as might be expected, a cholagogic ef- 

 fect along with erratic fluctuations in the temperature curves of 

 the patients so treated. The bile salt caused damage to the vein at 

 the point of injection, sometimes resulting in obliteration of the 

 vessel, but its use was attended by no other appreciable toxic 

 symptoms, although, to be sure, a slight degree of anemia was ob- 

 served. In a second communication, Ziegler 1571 stated that in rab- 

 bits the intravenous injection of sodium dehydrocholate in the con- 

 centration employed was without the injurious action of the 

 corresponding taurocholate and glycocholate on the tissues in the, 

 neighborhood of the injection, but apparently the treatment was 

 not applied to human beings. Because of both the predictable local 



