66 TOXINES AND ANTITOXINES. 



it has been proved beyond doubt by the researches of HOMER, 

 BUCHNER, SCHATTENFROH, KLEMPERER, 1 and many others, that 

 at least the albuminous substances isolated by long-continued 

 extraction from unruptured micro-organisms are absolutely 

 without specific action, and thus can be neglected in discussing 

 the causes of disease sui generis. 



But this only applies to the albuminous substances isolated 

 from the cells in a state of ideal purity. To separate them, 

 however, in such a state is only possible in the very rare cases 

 when the bacteria produce only free soluble specific poisons, 

 from which their cells can be completely separated, as has 

 been done by KOSSEL in the case of diphtheria bacilli. There 

 then remain behind proteins devoid of specific activity, exactly 

 similar to those that can be obtained from the most innocuous 

 bacteria, and, like other foreign albuminous substances, producing 

 sterile abscesses, &c. 



But usually it is impossible to effect a radical separation of 

 these proteins, in the narrower sense of the word, from the 

 poisons. The protein preparations from most bacteria are still 

 contaminated with residual particles of the specific poisonous 

 substances or their secondary products, especially endotoxines 

 and their derivatives, so that even these protein preparations 

 still produce characteristic symptoms of poisoning, as is the 

 case with cholera, typhus, and tuberculosis (see Special Part). 

 Here, then, the action of the pure protein cannot be demon- 

 strated, but only theoretically inferred. 



The actions of these poisons must be kept quite distinct from 

 the immunising processes that are brought about by the cell 

 materials of the bacteria, either in the uninjured cells or in 

 chemical preparations the problems of bactericidal immunity 

 which have been completely elucidated by the researches of 

 PFEIPFER and WASSERMANN as regards cholera, of PFEIFFER 

 and KOLLE in the case of typhus, and of KOCH in the case of 

 tuberculosis. 



These processes have absolutely no connection with the toxic 

 action of the cell proteins. Here we have to deal with the 

 introduction of suitable receptors, which rouse into activity 

 bactericidal protective forces ly sines, precipitines, and agglu- 

 tinines ; with processes that depend upon the complex stereo- 

 chemical configuration of the protein molecule. 



At present we can only assume with certainty the presence 

 of such receptors in unaltered bacterial cells, which, like the 



For the bibliography see Klemperer, "Die Beziehg. v 

 Immunitat u. Heilung," Z.f. klin. Med., xx., 165, 1892. 



