TOXIXES OF THE TUBERCLE BACILLUS. 233 



other all that was left. Both had remedial actions, but the 

 former, which of course contained a larger proportion of 

 albumoses, produced less fever than the latter. From this 

 fact it appeared that the necrotic action on the tissues and 

 the fever-producing effects were not necessarily caused by the 

 same body in tuberculin. A similar alcoholic precipitate was 

 introduced by Klebs under the name of " tuberculocidin," 

 and by Koch under the name of "purified tuberculin." 

 Xo improvement in therapeutic effects was obtained by the 

 use of any of these bodies. The most complete analyses 

 of tuberculin were carried out by Kiihne. This observer 

 generally confirmed Hunter's results, except that he found 

 peptone also present. He also found an albumose not 

 previously described, and which he named acro-albumose. 

 On subjecting, however, a control flask of uninoculated 

 glycerine bouillon to the same incubation conditions as a 

 similar bouillon infected with tubercle bacilli, he found that 

 the constituents of the former were identical with those of 

 the latter, acro-albumose being also present. The relative 

 proportions of the different constituents varied, but both in 

 this experiment and in others performed with solutions con- 

 taining the higher albumoses in a pure condition, Kiihne 

 found that after the tubercle bacillus had been growing, there 

 was present a larger proportion of the lower albumoses, i.e., 

 those formed just preliminary to the production of peptone. 

 This indicates that the bacillus has a digestive action on 

 albumin. Whether the albumoses thus formed are the 

 toxic bodies in tuberculin is doubtful. Kiihne found that all 

 the varieties he isolated gave a tuberculin reaction in 

 tubercular guinea-pigs, so that they might all simply be 

 carriers of the real toxine. This view he corroborated by 

 a further experiment. Tubercle bacilli were grown in a 

 glycerine medium which contained, instead of peptone, 

 leucin, tyrosin, asparagin, etc. Thus no proteid matter 

 was present. The fluid after culture was analysed as 

 before and no albumoses or peptones were found to be 

 present, but only an albuminate. It nevertheless had the 

 same effect on tubercular animals as tuberculin. The 



