ACTION ON ANIMALS 121 



Indeed, this fall of body temperature is often the first 

 marked symptom and, when occurring to a marked degree, 

 it is invariably a bad omen. The body temperature will 

 often fall from 101 to 94 F. or even lower within from two 

 to four hours, and this fall is progressive and continuous 

 until the animal's death, immediately preceding which a 

 temperature as low as 87 or 86 F. is not uncommon. At 

 the same time the animal shows signs of the most marked 

 peritoneal inflammation, as is evidenced by rigidity and 

 spasm of the abdominal muscles on pressure. At autopsy, 

 the only gross lesion present is a marked hemorrhagic 

 peritonitis with a large amount of bloody fluid containing 

 intact red corpuscles and leukocytes in the peritoneal 

 cavity. The parietal and visceral peritoneum are studded 

 with minute punctiform hemorrhages. Hemorrhage is an 

 especially prominent feature in the great omentum and is 

 present to a less marked degree in the mesentery. 



The Action of the Cellular Substance. The dead bacterial 

 substance used in the following work was obtained by 

 growing a large amount of the colon germ on tanks filled 

 with agar for a period of two weeks at room temperature. 

 At the end of this time the growth was removed from the 

 tanks and extracted with absolute alcohol and ether. The 

 crude bacterial substance thus obtained was reduced to a 

 fine powder by pulverization in an agate mortar, and was 

 then ready for use. 



It is interesting to note that the person who did the 

 pulverizing was often quite seriously poisoned during the 

 process unless he took the precaution of wearing a mask 

 which hindered the inhalation of the powder. The symp- 

 toms of such poisoning were exceedingly interesting. The 

 first thing noticed was a marked irritation of the nasal 

 mucous membrane and a huskiness of the voice, due no 

 doubt to the mechanical irritation of the inhaled powder. 

 This was followed by a feeling of depression and malaise, 

 and chilly sensations. Occasionally a decided chill would 

 be experienced. It is unfortunate that no accurate obser- 

 vations of temperature were taken in these cases. Nausea 



