54 TOXINS AND ANTITOXINS. 



faction of albuminoids. This toxin, which is not a 

 protein, is nothing else but a ptomaine. It is not 

 altered by heat, and possesses a very high toxicity. 

 Brieger claims that it is a hydroxylized derivative 

 of an aromatic amide.* 



Besides these facts, experiment has shown that 

 the leucocytes, or white corpuscles, the defensive 

 r61e of which we have noted in phagocytosis, owe 

 their properties to the ferments which they secrete, 

 and particularly to some of the digestive ferments. 

 These white corpuscles are very rich in ferments 

 of all kinds. Rossbach found in them amylase; 

 Achalme found lipase, casease, and trypsin; and 

 the study of immunity has brought to light a 

 series of other ferments, the alexins or cytases 

 (microcytase and macrocytase) , which have an 

 exceedingly important r61e to play. 



It may easily be conceived that under certain 

 circumstances a part or the whole of these ferments 

 can pass into the blood of the fluids of the body, 

 when they give rise to serious disturbances in 

 certain cases, or confer immunity in others. 



It is thus that, according to Gautier, the rise of 

 temperature which characterizes fever is a conse- 

 quence of the abnormal transudation of these 

 normal ferments into the blood, and their trans- 



* BRIEGER: Berichte d. D. chem. Gesellsch,, xix, p. 3120; and 

 Verhandl. d. Congress f. inner e Med., 11, p. 277. 



