NATURE OF THE TOXINES. 343 



Roux and Yersin considered that it belonged to the group 

 of diastases or enzymes. 



The true chemical nature of the diphtheria toxine is 

 still unknown, and the matter is further complicated by 

 the probability that a ferment formed by the bacilli pro- 

 duces other toxic bodies. Guinochet showed that toxine 

 was also formed from the bacilli when grown in urine with 

 no proteid bodies present. After growth had taken place 

 he could not detect proteid bodies in the fluid, but on 

 account of the very minute amount of toxine present, their 

 absence could not be excluded. Uschinsky also found that 

 toxic bodies were produced by diphtheria bacilli when 

 grown in a proteid-free medium. It follows from this that 

 if the true toxine is a proteid, it may be formed by synthesis 

 within the bodies of the bacilli, and not by a change in the 

 proteid of the culture fluid brought about by their action. 

 Brieger and Boer have separated from diphtheria cultures 

 a toxic body which gives no proteid reaction (vide p. 141). 



Toxic bodies have also been obtained from the tissues of 

 those who have died from diphtheria. Roux and Yersin, by 

 using a filtered watery extract from the spleen from very 

 virulent cases of diphtheria, produced in animals death after 

 wasting and paralysis, and also obtained similar results by 

 employing the urine. The subject of toxic bodies in the 

 tissues, however, has been specially worked out by Sidney 

 Martin. He has separated from the tissues and especially 

 from the spleen of patients who have died from diphtheria, by 

 precipitation by alcohol, chemical substances of two kinds, 

 namely, albumoses (proto- and deutero-, but especially the 

 latter), and an organic acid. The albumoses when injected 

 into rabbits especially in repeated doses, produce fever, 

 diarrhoea, paresis, and loss of weight, with ultimately a 

 fatal result. As in the experiments with the toxine from 

 cultures, the posterior limbs are first affected ; afterwards 

 the respiratory muscles, and finally the heart, are impli- 

 cated. He further found that this paresis is due to well- 

 marked changes in the nerves. The axis cylinders first 

 become affected, breaking up into globules ; ultimately the 



