322 A MANUAL OF BACTERIOLOGY 



Dr. Bitter, in 1887, 'furnished rigorous proof 

 that microbes produce album oses separable from 

 the organisms which form them. He managed to 

 kill the microbes by sterilisation at 60C. without 

 materially destroying their products, and in this 

 way demonstrated that two microbes, when grown 

 on gelatine, produced albumoses which were able, 

 apart from the microbes, to liquefy gelatine and 

 peptonise albumin.' In the same year Loffler, after 

 separating the microbes by means of a Chamber- 

 land filter, obtained an albumose from pure cultiva- 

 tions of Bacillus diphtheria?. This albumose is 

 precipitated by alcohol, and is soluble in water. 

 Eoux, Yersin, Brieger, and Frankel have obtained a 

 similar substance from cultivations of the same 

 microbe. This albumose produces all the charac- 

 teristic symptoms of diphtheria ; therefore, B. diph- 

 therice, which excretes this poisonous albumose, or 

 toxalbumin, as Brieger calls it, is really the cause 

 of the disease. 



Hankin x has extracted an albumose from cultiva- 

 tions of anthrax bacilli. It is precipitated by 

 alcohol, and is soluble in water. Martin 2 obtained 

 two albumoses from pure cultivations of the same 

 microbe. These albumoses are strongly alkaline; 

 but they are not so toxic as the ptomaine which 

 B. anthracis is said to produce. 



Among the microbes which excrete albumoses are 

 the following : 



1 Proc. Roy. Soc. t May 22, 1890. 

 - Ibid. 



