INFECTION AND IMMUNITY. 467 



tain bacteria ; that at the same time the development 

 of the bacteria was checked, and in the case of the path- 

 ogenic varieties their virulence was diminished. This 

 was particulariy the case when the anthrax bacillus was 

 employed. 



Grohmann seems to have appreciated the significance 

 of this observation, though he took no steps to study the 

 subject more closely. He remarks that the system prob- 

 ably possesses, in the plasma of the blood, a body hav- 

 ing disinfectant properties {loe. dt., pp. 6 and 33). This 

 work, however, was not conducted according to the more 

 exact methods of modern bacteriologi«il research, so 

 that the complete demonstration of this phenomenon 

 must be accredited to Nuttall. 



Since the publication of Nuttall' s work his results 

 have received confirmation from all sides. Fodor,* 

 Buchner,^ Lubarsch,' Nissen,* Stern,^ Prudden,^ Char- 

 rin and Roger, ^ and many others have continued in the 

 same line, and have all made practically the same obser- 

 vation. 



After the demonstration by Nuttall that the serum 

 of the blood was directly detrimental to the vitality of 

 certain pathogenic bacteria, it became the work of a 

 number of investigators to determine to which element 

 of the serum 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 demon- 

 strated that the serum was robbed of this property by 



1 Centr. f. Bakteriologie u. Parasitenkunde, 1890, vol. vii. No. 24. 



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



» Centr f. Bakt. u. Parasitenkunde, 1889, voL vi. No. 18. 



* Zeitschr. fiir Hygiene, 1889, vol. vi. part 3. 



^ Zeitschr. fur kiln. Med., 1890, vol. viii. parts 1 and 2. 



» N. Y. Med. Record, 1890, vol. «xvii. pp. 85, 86. 



I Soc de BioL de Paris. 



