THE ENZYMES OF THE TUBERCLE BACILLUS 



H. J. CORPER AND H. C. SWEANY 



From the Laboratories of the Municipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium of the City of 



Chicago 



Received for publication January 14, 1917 



The tubercle bacillus and the related acid fast bacilli (lepra, 

 smegma, etc.,) have for a great many years been looked upon 

 as distinct and different organisms, biologically and chemically, 

 from the ordinary rapidly growing bacteria, and it is rather 

 singular that until recently the tubercle bacillus should have 

 been considered not to possess the ordinary well-known enzymes. 

 This lack of knowledge as to the presence of enzymes in the 

 tubercle bacillus is, of course, explicable on the basis that not 

 until within recent years have sufficiently delicate quantitative 

 methods been available for the demonstration of these interest- 

 ing catalytic substances in such a sluggish organism as the 

 tubercle bacillus and in amounts so small or of so slight an activ- 

 ity as those characteristic of this organism. It is worthy of 

 note also that these problems could not have been solved before 

 the days of the use of antiseptics in studying enzymatic action. 

 During the course of investigations carried out to find a suitable 

 antigen for use in complement fixation tests for tuberculosis, it 

 was deemed advisable to understand more fully the part played 

 by the enzymes in the tubercle bacillus and for this purpose the 

 experiments to be reported upon were carried out. 



LITERATURE 



In order to study the action of the enzymes of various bac- 

 teria upon different substances and thus gain a better insight 

 into the nature of these enzymes, Eijkman (1901) used a simple 

 plate method called the ''auxanographic" method of Beijerinck 

 or the diffusion method of Wijsman. This method, which con- 

 sists in mixing various substrates (casein, blood, starch, tallow, 



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