NATURE OF BACTERIOLYSANTS 



495 



An attempt was made to break up saline suspensions of the 

 twenty-four hours' growth on agar of Flexner baciUi and also 

 of B. subtilis by alternate freezing and thawing but though 

 the suspensions were frozen and thawed once or twice a day for 

 thirty-five days, smears and cultures indicated that no damage 



TABLE n 



Comparison of the bacteriolytic activity of filtrates of agar cultures of a "sensitive" 



and a normal strain of Bact. dysenteriae {Flexner Y, Hiss and Russell) suspended 



in N/10 phosphate solution of pH 8 and ground in a rotary agate mortar 



had been done to the organsism. This is in marked contrast 

 to the death of "sensitive" baciUi suspended in saUne, at room 

 temperature for thirty-four days (vide supra). Attempts were 

 also made to dissolve dysentery bacilh by the addition of sodium 

 hydroxide and of trypsin but the amount of the former required 

 was sufficient to destroy any lytic activity that might have been 

 present (table 9 part I,) and trypsin would not dissolve the 

 organisms (table 15). 



