196 SYNCYTIOTOXIN, NEUROTOXIN 



develops nephritis and lesions of the liver. Now it is known that 

 in some cases at least fragments of the placenta break loose and 

 circulate for a time in the blood during pregnancy, and it is not 

 difficult to suppose that dissolved products of these cells are 

 constantly being absorbed. Hence it seems possible that some 

 at least of the cases of nephritis during pregnancy and of eclampsia 

 may be produced in this way ; and Weichardt produced symptoms 

 resembling those of eclampsia by macerating placental tissue with 

 syncytiolysin, and injecting the result into normal rabbits. Hence 

 it was hoped that an antitoxin for puerperal eclampsia and 

 nephritis might be produced by immunizing animals with placental 

 tissue, so as to produce a serum which would dissolve the circulat- 

 ing placental cells, and prevent the destruction of the cells of the 

 liver and kidneys. This does not seem to have been put into 

 practice, and there are numerous theoretical objections which 

 might be raised. 



Prostatotoxin has been prepared by Jungano by injecting an 

 emulsion of the prostates of young dogs into rabbits. The serum 

 clumps emulsions of prostatic cells, and when injected in vivo 

 produces fatty and granular degeneration of the epithelial cells 

 of the gland and a leucocytic infiltration of the stroma; it is 

 apparently fairly specific, there being no obvious lesion of other 

 organs. 



Neurotoxin has been prepared by Delezenne, Centanni, Delille, 

 and others, by the treatment of one animal with the brain sub- 

 stance from another, which is often in itself somewhat toxic, so 

 that the process does not always succeed. It causes a remarkable 

 series of phenomena indicative of profound intoxication of the 

 nerve centres. These usually begin with somnolence and torpor, 

 which come on shortly after the injection, and may last some 

 hours, being succeeded by convulsive crises, in which there are 

 tonic and clonic spasms ; there may be one such attack, or a 

 series, with coma between each. The temperature is lowered, and 

 death usually occurs in one to twenty- four hours. The histological 

 changes are marked, and affect the ganglion and cortical cells; 

 they indicate a profound degree of destruction of these structures 

 (neurolysis). The substance is most active when injected into 

 the brain direct ; when introduced into the veins it is innocuous, 

 but forms an anticytolysin. 



Schmidt has prepared a serum which he claims to be more or less 

 specific for the peripheral nerves. A guinea-pig which is injected 



