TOXINES OF KOCH*S SPIRILLUM. 389 



chloroform, when injected intraperitoneally into a guinea- 

 pig, may cause death in from eight to twelve hours, with 

 symptoms which are comparable with those produced in 

 intestinal infection by Koch's method. There is extreme 

 collapse, sometimes clonic spasms occur, and the tempera- 

 ture may fall below 30 C. before death. Pfeiffer considers 

 that the toxic substances are contained in the bodies of 

 the organisms, that is, they are intracellular, and that they 

 are only set free by the disintegration of the latter. This 

 opinion is grounded chiefly on the fact that when bouillon 

 cultures were filtered, he found that the filtrate possessed 

 very feeble toxic properties. The dead cultures adminis- 

 tered by the mouth produce no effect unless the intestinal 

 epithelium is injured, when poisoning may result. He 

 considers that the desquamation of the epithelium is an 

 essential factor in the production of the phenomena of the 

 disease in the human subject. Pfeiffer found that the 

 toxic bodies were to a great extent destroyed at 60 C., 

 but even after heating at 100 C. a small proportion of 

 toxine remained, which had the same physiological action. 

 On the other hand, other observers (Petri, Ransom, 

 Klein, and others) have obtained toxic bodies from 

 filtered cultures. Recently MetchnikofT, E. Roux, and 

 Taurelli-Salimbeni have demonstrated the formation of 

 diffusible toxic bodies in fluid media in the following 

 manner. Small collodion sacs were prepared, each con- 

 taining 2 to 4 c.c. of bouillon. One sac was inoculated 

 with a living virulent culture of the cholera vibrio ; to the 

 second, two entire cultures on agar of the same organism 

 were added, the cultures being first killed by chloroform. 

 Each sac was then closed and placed with aseptic pre- 

 cautions in the peritoneum of a guinea-pig. The animal 

 which received the sac containing the living vibrios soon 

 showed symptoms of choleraic poisoning, and died in a few 

 days, whilst the animal which received the sac containing 

 large quantities of dead organisms only showed transitory 

 symptoms of illness. The experimenters therefore concluded 

 that toxic substances are formed by the living organisms, 



