590 BACTERIOLOG Y. 



(and more recently in the work of Fraser, 1 Calmette, 

 Weir Mitchell, and others), and similar to that follow- 

 ing the injection into the tissues of small quantities of 

 hemialbumose, which in large amounts rapidly proves 

 fatal. 



Of utmost importance to these investigations upon 

 the blood and fluids of the body are the experiments 

 of Behring and Kitasato 2 upon the production of im- 

 munity from tetanus. In their studies upon the blood 

 of animals subjected to these experiments it was found 

 that it was not only possible to render animals immune 

 from this disease, but that the serum of the blood of 

 these immunized animals afforded immunity when in- 

 jected into the peritoneal cavity of other animals that 

 had not been so protected ; and moreover, that in some 

 cases this serum possesses curative powers over the 

 disease after it has been in progress for a time. They 

 found, further, that the serum of animals that had been 

 rendered immune from tetanus, when brought in con- 

 tact with the poison of tetanus, completely destroyed its 

 poisonous properties, and that the serum from animals 

 or from human beings that do not possess immunity 

 from this disease has no such power. 



1 One of the important results of Eraser's studies is the demonstra- 

 tion that the bile of normal serpents and of certain warm-blooded 

 animals, notably bovines, rabbits, and guinea-pigs, is antitoxic for 

 serpent venom. The antitoxic value of the bile in this connection 

 seems to be fairly comparable to that of other antitoxins obtained 

 from the blood of artificially immunized animals. Its action is not 

 only prophylactic, but also curative, Fraser having succeeded in 

 rescuing animals by the injection of bile-extract thirty minutes after 

 they had received what would otherwise have been a fatal dose of 

 cobra poison. (See Centralblatt fur Bakteriologie, 1897, Bd. xxii. S. 

 420.) 



' 2 Behring und Kitasato : Deutsche med. Wochenschrift, 1890, Bd. 

 xvi. S. 1113. 



