306 PROTEIN POISONS 



that corresponding preparations from guinea-pigs sensitized 

 to egg-white do (p. 274). 



Friedberger and Mita 1 show that summer frogs can be 

 anaphylactized. From 0.1 to 0.5 c.c. of lamb serum was 

 given by the abdominal vein, or into the dorsal lymph sac 

 as a sensitizing dose. From one to four weeks later a rein- 

 jection causes characteristic symptoms. The animal soon 

 becomes stupid and lies with extended limbs. When placed 

 on its back it does not regain its normal position. Sudden 

 death does not follow, and the animal usually survives 

 from twelve to twenty-four hours. When the heart is 

 watched through a fenestrated chest, the pulse is seen to 

 grow slow and irregular, and finally the heart stops in 

 diastole. Anaphylatoxin was found to have a similar 

 action on the isolated heart. 



Friedberger and Scymanowski 2 show that the presence 

 of leukocytes lessens the formation of anaphylatoxin, and 

 apparently destroys it when abundantly formed. They 

 question whether this is due to an activity of the leukocyte 

 or to its absorption of the poison. We suggest that the 

 leukocytes destroy the poison by digesting it and converting 

 it into a harmless body. 



More than ten years ago (see p. 46) we showed that the 

 poison contained in the cellular substance of the diphtheria 

 bacillus is a wholly different thing from the toxin elaborated 

 by the same organism. This convinced us that the protein 

 poisons substances obtained by the cleavage of the protein 

 molecule are not toxins. When the diphtheria bacillus grows 

 it elaborates and excretes a soluble ferment known as diph- 

 theria toxin. When injected into animals in sufficient doses 

 this toxin kills after from two to five days. When repeatedly 

 injected in smaller doses the body elaborates an antibody 

 an antitoxin. When the cellular substance of the diphtheria 

 bacillus is split up by our method a poison is obtained. 

 This is not a toxin, but a poison. When injected into 



1 Zeitsch. f. Immunitatsforschung, 1911, x, 362. 

 * Ibid., 1911, xi, 485. 



