88 TOXINES AND ANTITOXINKS. 



is thus continually smaller, and the last traces seem to disappear 

 very slowly. 



Similar results were obtained by CnoLY. 1 He found the 

 toxine still unchanged after five minutes, and that half, at most, 

 had disappeared after two hours. The poison is then, also, not 

 to be detected in the organs of the body, nor is it excreted by the 

 urine or intestinal fluid (BOMSTEIN), although BftUNNER 2 claims 

 to have detected it in the juices of the muscle, and SALTER S in 

 sweat (?). 



It does not act by way of the stomach or the intestines. It is 

 destroyed, like all other toxines, by the digestive fluids, notably 

 by the liquid of a pancreatic fistula ; less readily by the gastric 

 juice. In very large doses it shows a certain amount of activity 

 (NENCKI, SIEBER, and ScnouMANOwsKi 4 ), as also when the 

 mucous membrane is artificially injured (see also the General 

 Part). 



CoNSiGLio 5 claims to have observed a characteristic property of diph- 

 theria toxine. He found that in small doses it had a stimulating effect 

 upon fermentative processes, but a restrictive one in larger doses ; whilst, 

 on the other hand, it invariably had a very unfavourable influence upon 

 the germination processes of seeds. 



Toxoids and Toxones. Nothing whatever is known of the 

 properties of the toxoids that occur in old cultures (see General 

 Part). We have not the slightest idea of the chemical process 

 which induces the supposed inactivity of the toxophore group. 

 Nor can we state whether they are physiologically indifferent in 

 the free state, or whether they still possess a slight toxic capacity, 

 although, according to numerical results sharply differentiated 

 values obtained during the alteration of the poison the latter 

 alternative is not very probable. 



The only proof that other substances are present in weakened cultures is 

 the fact recorded by BRIEGER and FRANKEL (loc. cit.) that they found in 

 such cultivations a non-poisonous substance, which was somewhat soluble 

 in dilute alcohol, and could be distinguished from the toxine by chemical 

 tests e.g., by the formation of a phenyl-hydrazine compound. This sub- 



1 Croly, "Sur 1. disparition de la tox. diphth. injectee dans le sang.," 

 Arch, intemat. de Pharmacodynamie, iii. 



2 Brunner, "Unt. lib. die Wirk. von Bakterien- u. Pflanzengiften," Abst. 

 Centralbl.f. Bakt., xxiv., 184, 1898. 



3 Salter, "The Elimination of Bacterial Toxines," Lancet, 1898, i., 152 : 

 cf. Walsh, ibid., 362. 



4 Nencki, Sieber, and Schoumanowski, "Die Entgiftung der Toxine," 

 Centralbl.f. Bakt., xxiii., 840, 1898. 



5 Consiglio, " Azione di alcune tossine, &c.," Arch, di Farm., vi., No. 3, 

 1898; MalysJb., 1898, 634. 



