THE NATURE OF HEMOLYSINS 



J. T. CONNELL and L. E. HOLLY 



Ann Arbor, Michigan 



Received for publication July 20, 1920 



Attention was first called to the fact that some bacteria pro- 

 duce hemolysins when Ehrlich (1898) showed that the bacillus 

 of tetanus produced a substance which he called tetanolysin. 

 The discovery of the existence of this lysin was rapidly followed 

 by the announcement of other bacterial hemolysins, such as 

 pyocyanolysin (Bulloch and HuntCi', 1900; Weingeroff, 1901), 

 staphylolysin by Neisser and Wechsburg (1901), streptolysin by 

 Besredka (1901), typholysin by E. and P. Levy (1901), megath- 

 eriolysin by Todd (1901), etc. 



It was soon shown that these lysins were characteristic of the 

 organisms that produced them. For instance the staphylolysin, 

 according to Neisser and Wechsburg, is injured by heating to 

 48°C. for twenty minutes, and destroyed at 56°C. for twenty 

 minutes. Pyocyanin is destroyed by heatir^g .to 100°C. for 

 fifteen minutes if it is free in the filtrate, but if the organisms are 

 present it requires a higher temperature, and typholysin is not 

 destroyed by boiling. Streptolysin requires 70°C. for two hours. 



The majority of the lysins give rise to antilysins which are 

 specific, though streptolysin is an exception. In fact the abil- 

 ity of a lysin to call forth an antilysin seems to run parallel with 

 the ability of the microorganism producing the lysin to call 

 forth antibodies to itself. 



Lubenau (1901) considered the possibility that some substances 

 which are known to be present in the medium may at times 

 be responsible for the hemolysis. He tested the hemolytic 

 power of sodium carbonate, ammonia, glucose and lactic acid, 

 and showed that the strengths of these substances required to 

 hemolyze are rarely ever present at the time the hemolysin is 



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JOURNAL OF BACTEBIOLOGY, VOL. VI, NO. 1 



