DIPHTHERIA TOXINE. 83 



Special attention was given some time ago to the behaviour of 

 solutions of diphtheria virus under the influence of electric currents. 

 In the first place, SMIRNOW 1 and KnuGER 2 allowed continuous 

 currents of low intensity to act upon the toxines, and found that 

 when the current was cautiously applied there was a slight de- 

 velopment of acidity at the anode. When the degree of acidity 

 was such that 1 c.c. of the liquid neutralised about 1-2 c.c. of 

 normal soda solution the current was discontinued, and it was 

 then found that the toxic value had been considerably lowered, 

 but not the immunisation value. Perfectly analogous results 

 were obtained by D'ARSONVAL and CHARRIN 3 in their experiments 

 with high-tension alternating currents of great power. On these 

 results were based theoretically untenable and very far-reaching 

 speculations on the formation of " artificial therapeutic serum " 

 without the aid of an animal, &c. ; in addition to which the 

 fantastic idea occurred to D'ARSONVAL and CHARRIN of treating 

 infection in the body itself by means of such high-tension 

 currents, which, as is well known, have no action at all upon 

 man. 



All these somewhat mystical conceptions, however, about the 

 influence of electricity have been explained by MARMIER.* He 

 has shown that during the electrolysis with continuous currents 

 oxidising substances are formed, notably hypochlorite and free 

 chlorine from sodium chloride invariably present, and that these 

 have a secondary action on the toxophore group of the poison. 



As regards alternating currents, MARMIEU was able to demon- 

 strate that, in spite of cooling with ice, such intense heating 

 occurred that this alone was sufficient to explain the weakening 

 of the poison. When he excluded this factor by means of in- 

 genious devices, there was no perceptible action on the toxine 

 either of diphtheria or tetanus. 



Hence we have here to deal with secondary alterations under 

 the influence of the electric current, and these evidently tend to 

 a more rapid formation of toxoid, with accompanying destruction 

 of the toxophore group. 



Physiological Action of Diphtheria Toxine. Diphtheria toxine 

 is extremely poisonous to many animals. Roux and YERSIN 

 estimate the single lethal dose for a guinea-pig at about 0*05 



1 Smirnow, "Ueb. d. Behandlungd. Diphtherie," Berl. klin. Woch., 1894, 

 683; 1895, 645, 675. 



2 Kritger, "Ueb. die chem. Wirkg. d. Electriz. auf toxische und 

 immunis. Bakteriensubstanzen," Deutsche med. Woch., 1895, 331. 



3 d'Arsonval and Charrin, "Action des Courants a" haute frequence sur les 

 toxines bacteriennes," Comptes Rend., cxxii., 280, 1896. 



4 Marraier, " Les toxines et l'e"lectricite," Ann. Past., 1896, 469, 



