PROTEIN POISONS 



CHAPTER I 

 INTRODUCTION 



MANY years ago the senior contributor to this volume 

 began a research on the chemistry of bacterial cellular 

 substance. This work has grown and the progress made 

 has been reported from time to time in current scientific 

 and medical literature. Able assistants have rendered 

 valuable service, and as the research has developed it has 

 been correlated with that done along similar lines in other 

 laboratories. We feel that the time has come when the 

 more important facts ascertained along this and related 

 lines, by all investigators, should be classified and proper 

 deductions drawn from them. We are the more inclined 

 to do this because we believe that the proper interpretation 

 of the results obtained opens up a view of the etiology and 

 development of both immunity and disease, which has 

 hitherto not been appreciated. We have thought it best 

 to state briefly in this introduction some of the most impor- 

 tant points dwelt upon in the volume. We have done this 

 somewhat dogmatically, hoping that they will impress the 

 reader and hold his attention while they are more fully 

 detailed in subsequent chapters. 



1. Bacteria are essentially particulate, specific proteins. 

 Bacteria are usually classified as microscopic plants, but we 

 have sought diligently for the presence of cellulose in their 

 structure, with uniformly negative results. We have 

 shown that some bacteria, at least, contain two carbohy- 

 2 



