54 PROTEIN POISONS 



Hammerschlag 1 extracted tubercle bacilli with dilute 

 alkali and precipitated a protein with ammonium sulphate. 

 Buchner 2 extracted tubercle bacilli with from 40 to 50 per 

 cent, glycerin, and obtained what he believed to be the 

 active principle of tuberculin, but which in reality consisted 

 of a mixture of the autolytic products of this bacillus. 

 Hoffman 3 reported the isolation of six proteins from the 

 tubercle bacillus, but these were mixtures. Weyl 4 believed 

 that he had succeeded in separating the membrane from 

 the protoplasmic content of the bacterial cell, and from the 

 latter he obtained a body which he designated as a toxo- 

 mucin, but there is no proof that the bacterial cell has 

 any such structure as he supposed. Ruppel 5 prepared 

 from the tubercle bacillus a body that he named tuber- 

 culosamin. 



Vandervelde 6 reported the presence of nuclein in bacillus 

 subtillis, and Dreyfuss, 7 basing his opinion on the behavior 

 of bacteria toward the basic aniline dyes, concluded that 

 nuclein is a constituent of all bacteria. Gottstein, 8 finding 

 that various bacteria decompose hydrogen peroxide, both 

 during life and after death, concludes from this, from the 

 presence of phosphorus, and from the affinity of bacteria 

 for basic aniline dyes, that they contain nuclein. Nishi- 

 mura 9 reported the finding of nuclein in a water bacillus 

 grown on potato. The bacterial cells were removed from 

 the potatoes, extracted with alcohol and ether, heated under 

 a reflux condenser with 0.15 per cent, sulphuric acid, and 

 then heated in an autoclave at 105. From this acid extract 

 he obtained 0.17 per cent, xanthin, 0.08 per cent, adenin, 

 and 0.14 per cent, guanin. Lustig and Galeotti 10 prepared 



1 Monats. f. Chem., 1899, x, 9; Centralbl. f. klin. Med., 1891, xii, 9. 



2 Munch, med. Woch., 1891, xxxviii, 45. 



3 Wien. klin. Woch., 1894, 712. 



4 Deutsch. med. Woch., 1891, xvii, 256. 



s Zeitsch. f. Physiol. Chem., 1898, xxvi, 218. 



6 Ibid., 1884, viii, 367. 



7 Ibid., 1893, xviii, 358. 



8 Virchow's Archiv, 1893, cxxxiii, 302. 



9 Arch. f. Hygiene, 1893, xviii, 318. 



10 Deutsch. med. Woch., 1897, xxiii, 228. 



