196 PROTEIN POISONS 



Fermi 1 has shown the presence of both diastatic and 

 proteolytic ferments in anthrax cultures, but as all living 

 cells, including bacteria, elaborate such ferments, this 

 discovery fails to make us acquainted with the poison of 

 the anthrax protein. Maumus 2 found that by its growth 

 on potato the anthrax bacillus converts some starch into 

 sugar, and Reyer 3 showed the presence in anthrax cultures 

 of a ferment which coagulates casein. 



Klein 4 removed anthrax bacilli from agar cultures of 

 forty-eight hours' growth, placed them in 5 c.c. of bouillon, 

 and after the tube had been held for five minutes in boiling 

 water, injected the contents into the peritoneal cavity of 

 a guinea-pig, without results. After a few days the injec- 

 tion was repeated, and four or five days later these animals 

 were inoculated subcutaneously and intra-abdominally, 

 with small doses of a living culture. All died within forty- 

 eight hours, of typical anthrax. From these experiments 

 Klein concluded that the anthrax bacillus contains no 

 intracellular poison, and that treatment with the cellular 

 substance confers no immunity on guinea-pigs. 



Conradi 5 attempted to solve the question of the existence 

 of an anthrax poison by the following methods: 



1. Guinea-pigs were inoculated intraperitoneally with 

 anthrax, and immediately after death the peritoneal fluid, 

 which varied in amount in different individuals, but aver- 

 aged from 10 to 15 c.c., and contained in each field from ten 

 to twenty microorganisms, was filtered through porcelain. 

 In some of the experiments the filter of Chamberland was 

 employed while in others that of Kitasato was used. The 

 filtered peritoneal exudate was injected into mice, rats, 

 and guinea-pigs subcutaneously, intravenously, and intra- 

 peritoneally, and always without effect. The amounts of the 

 filtered exudate injected into mice varied from 2 to 4 c.c.; 



1 Arch. f. Hygiene, 1890, x, 1. 



2 Compt. Rend, de la Soc. de Biologic, 1893, v, 1071. 



3 Ibid., 309. 



4 Ceiitralbl. f. Bakteriologie, 1894, xv, 598. 



5 Zeitsch. f. Hygiene, 1899, xxxi, 287. 



