1890.] A Bacteria-killing Globulin. '.)'.) 



I have as yet made no systematic observations on the degenerative 

 appearances that anthrax bacilli may show when subjected to the 

 action of cell globulin. On one occasion, however, I found that the 

 bacilli, twenty-four hours after being added to a dilute cell globulin 

 solution, had broken up into extremely short segments. Czaplewski* 

 found a similar change to occur as a stage in the degeneration of 

 virulent anthrax bacilli when injected into pigeons, which were 

 natuially immune against this disease, and Gamaleiaf met with 1 a like 

 mode of degeneration during the " vaccinal " fever which follows the 

 inoculation of attenuated anthrax into rablnts or sheep. 



My experiments on the effects of injection's of cell globulin into 

 animals before or after anthrax infection in modifying the course of 

 the disease, though entirely of a preliminary nature, are of some 

 interest. The cell globulin was not prepared by the above-described 

 method, but the sodium sulphate extract was dialysed to remove the 

 excess of the salt, and heated to 50 or 51 for half-an-hour to 

 coagulate any traces of cell globulin-:* or nucleo-albumen that might be 

 present. J A few cubic centimeters of a solution thus prepared were 

 injected into the lateral ear vein of a rabbit, which, either at the 

 same time or on the day before, had been inoculated with anthrax. 

 The results were extremely variable, and showed no relation to the 

 quantity of cell globulin employed. In some cases no effect was pro- 

 duced, the animal dying in the same time as, or even before, the 

 control. In other cases the animal lived two or three days longer, 

 and showed slight diarrhoea. In such cases the spleen was nearly 

 always greatly enlarged. The bacilli were generally in long chains 

 (consisting of occasionally twenty or thirty joints), as is usually the 

 case after inoculation with attenuated anthrax. Sometimes, however, 

 they appeared to be exceptionally short. Further, a large number of 

 phagocytes (macrophages), containing bacilli in different stages of 

 degeneration, could be seen. In the control animal phagocytes con- 

 taining bacilli could but rarely be found. Fig. 1 shows the tempera- 

 ture chart of three rabbits, of which two (A and B) received a 

 succession of doses of cell globulin. The three rabbits were very 

 young, and did not weigh more than 400 grams each ; C was the 

 control, and died in thirty-six hours. A and B showed well-marked 

 diarrhoea forty-eight hours after inoculation, and died after ninety- 



* "Ueber die Immuriitat der Tauben gegeri Milzbraml," ' Konigsberg Diss. 

 Inaug.,' 1889. 



t " Sur la Destruction dea Microbes dans les Corps des Animaux febricitante," 

 'Annales de 1'Institut Pasteur,' 1889, p. 229. 



J " Report of a Committee consisting of Professors Schafer (secretary), Foster, and 

 Lankester, and Dr. W. B. Halliburton, appointed for the purpose of investigating 

 the physiology of the lymphatic system" (' Brit. Assoc. Rep.,' 1888, p. 363). 



In these experiments, the control rabbit nearly always died within thirty-six 

 lioum.. IV : 



