INFECTION AND IMMUNITY. 587 



NuttalFs results received confirmation from all sides. 

 Fodor, 1 Buchner, 2 Lubarsch, 3 Nissen, 4 Stern, 5 Prudden, 6 

 Charrin and Roger/ and many others continued in the 

 same line, and all made practically the same observation. 



After the demonstration by Nuttall that the serum 

 of the blood was directly detrimental to the vitality of 

 certain pathogenic bacteria, a number of investigators 

 undertook to determine the conditions most favorable to 

 the exhibition of this phenomenon, and further to decide 

 upon the constituent of the serum to which this property 

 is due, or if it is a function of the serum only as a whole. 



In the course of Buchner's experiments it was de- 

 monstrated that the serum was robbed of this property 

 by exposure to a temperature of 55 C. for half an 

 hour ; that its efficacy as a germicide was not dimin- 

 ished by alternate freezing and thawing ; that by dialy- 

 sis or extreme dilution with distilled water its germicidal 

 activity was diminished or completely checked ; but 

 that an equal dilution could be made, if sodium chlo- 

 ride solution (0.6-0.7 per cent.) was substituted for the 

 distilled water, without a reduction of its bactericidal 

 activity. From this he concluded that the active ele- 

 ment in this phenomenon is a living albumin, an essen- 

 tial constituent of which is sodium chloride, and which, 

 when robbed of this salt either by dialysis or dilution, 

 becomes inert in its behavior toward bacteria. For this 



1 Central, fur Bakteriologie und Parasiteiikunde, 1890, Bd. vii. No. 24. 



2 Archiv fur Hygiene, 1890, vol. x. parts 1 and 2. 



3 Centralblatt fur Bakteriologie und Parasitenkunde, 1889, Bd. vi. 

 No. 18. 



4 Zeitscrift fur Hygiene, 1889, Bd. vi. part 3. 



5 Zeitscrift fur klin. Medicin, 1890, Bd. viii. parts 1 and 2. 



6 New York Medical Rec;rd, 1890, vol. xxxvii. pp. 85 and 86. 

 7 Societe de Biologic de Paris. 



