PROTEIN SENSITIZATION OR AN APH YL AXIS 339 



leave out of consideration bacteria which, like the diphtheria 

 bacillus, produce true secretory poisons, it would be the 

 ability to gain a foothold in the body, the degree of invasive 

 power, the predilection in the choice of a path of entrance, 

 and the specific local accumulation, upon which the speed and 

 quantity of toxin production and absorption would depend, 

 and which consequently would give character to variations 

 in the clinical pictures of different diseases. Besides, 

 simplifying considerably our comprehension of bacterial 

 toxemia, the point of view suggested by this work again 

 brings out the great importance of the work of Vaughan 

 and Vaughan and Wheeler on the non-specific poisonous 

 fraction obtained by hydrolysis of bacterial and other pro- 

 teins, and makes it desirable that the particular conditions 

 of anaphylatoxin and endotoxin production in the case of 

 individual pathogenic bacteria should be carefully studied." 



We regard the work of Jobling and Bull 1 as confirmatory 

 of our studies in every particular. These investigators 

 have studied the action of the cellular substance of the 

 typhoid bacillus and its split products, produced by the 

 action of a proteolytic ferment obtained from leukocytes, 

 and state their findings as follows: "Freshly washed, 

 unheated typhoid bacilli intravenously injected into dogs 

 cause the development of definite symptoms as early as 

 twenty minutes after the injection. Boiling for ten minutes 

 does not destroy the toxic effects of a freshly washed bac- 

 terial emulsion. Complete solution of the bacteria (in dilute 

 alkali) of a fresh emulsion does not prevent the removal of 

 the toxic substance with the coagulable proteins. The action 

 of leukoprotease splits the toxic substance to a non-coagulable 

 state, the digested mixtures being toxic after removing the 

 coagulable portion. The mere presence of the leukocytic 

 ferment is not responsible for the toxicity of the filtrate 

 from the digested mixture, and continued digestion destroys 

 the toxicity of a previous toxic mixture. From these observa- 

 tions it is concluded that the toxic properties of freshly 



ijour. Exp. Med., 1913, xvii, 453. 



