THE SPLIT PRODUCTS OF TUBERCLE BACILLUS 111 



of the lungs with punctate hemorrhages beneath the peri- 

 cardium. The results, although not so strikingly positive 

 as those of Banzhaf and Steinhardt, at least tend to confirm 

 their conclusion." (10) Banzhaf and Steinhardt found 

 that lecithin given intraperitoneally in doses of from 250 

 to 500 mg. or more to serum-sensitized guinea-pigs pro- 

 tected them from a second injection of 5 c.c. of horse serum 

 given twenty-four hours later. When lecithin was emul- 

 sified with the Vaughan poison or given twenty-four hours 

 before the poison was injected, no protection was afforded. 

 From this Banzhaf and Steinhardt conclude that lecithin 

 prevents the cleavage of the protein in a sensitized animal 

 on reinjection and that it does not neutralize or modify 

 the action of the preformed poison. White and Avery, 

 from their experiments, come to the following conclusion: 

 "Lecithin emulsion injected simultaneously with the 

 poison seems to possess a slight and irregular prophylactic 

 action. Incubation of the poison with lecithin emulsion 

 for an hour at 37.5 increases this neutralizing property. 

 A dose of 1 to 12,000 was not affected. The preliminary 

 administration of lecithin protected some of the animals, 

 delayed death in others, and was without effect in the 

 remainder. The results were too inconstant to warrant 

 definite conclusions." 



White and Avery are inclined to the opinion that our 

 crude protein poison contains a plurality of active substances, 

 and in this they are probably right. They say: "The 

 effects provoked by the parenteral administration of the 

 artificially obtained poisonous substance in non-fatal doses, 

 and as modified by atropine, morphine, chloral, and other 

 drugs, seem to suggest the plurality of its action. It is 

 conceivable that the poisonous fraction obtained by 

 Vaughan's method contains either an essential component 

 which is several in its physiological action, and which in 

 sufficient doses exerts its primary and dominating effect on 

 the respiratory mechanism, or that it contains groups or 

 individual constituents of different selective vital affinities, 

 the most eminent of which is for the peripheral or central 

 12 



