THE NATURE OF TOXIN 



THE ANTIGENS OF CORYNEBACTERIUM DIPHTHERIAE AND 



BACILLUS MEGATHERIUM AND THEIR RELATION 



TO TOXIN 



C. C. WARDEN, J. T. CONNELL and L. E. HOLLY 



Ann Arbor, Michigan 



Received for publication July 20, 1920 



Previous work upon a considerable number of bacteria and 

 other types of living cells having demonstrated that each variety 

 of cell possesses a fat complex which is specifically antigenic/ 

 it was determined to ascertain whether toxin-producing bacteria 

 might not also yield fat antigen complexes, and whether such 

 antigens bear any relationship to the toxins. 



For this purpose we selected C. diphtheriae and the B. mega- 

 therium, both of which yield heavy growths as well as produce 

 abundant toxin in suitable media. It has seemed advisable for 

 purposes of explanation and comparison to include the obser- 

 vations upon both of these bacteria in one paper. The toxin of 

 C. diphtheriae induces strong antitoxin, but the antigen of the 

 organisms themselves is not conspicuous in the production of 

 other immune substances such as agglutinins, precipitins and 

 complement fixing bodies, while on the other hand the B. mega- 

 therium gives rise to abundant antibodies of such nature together 

 with antihemolysins and antitoxins. Where the reactions of 

 these two organisms have characters in common they tend to 

 confirm one another, and the deficiences of one may be explained 

 by the data obtained from the other. Moreover, the work on 

 these bacteria was carried on at the same time, together with 

 that of Connell and Holly on the ''Nature of Hemolysins." 



1 Warden, Jour. Infect. Dis., 1918, 22, 133; ibid., 1918, 23, 504; ibid., 1919, 24, 

 285; Warden and Connell, ibid., 1919, 25, 399. 



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