TETANOLYSINE. 133 



Over-saturated mixtures of toxine and antitoxine are fre- 

 quently still poisonous to guinea-pigs, though other animals can 

 be immunised by their means, so that here too there appear to 

 exist conditions of equilibrium about the neutral point, which 

 need further investigation. 



BACTERIAL HJEMOLYSINES. 



Closely allied to the true toxines are those bacterial substances 

 which exert a specific activity on the red corpuscles of the blood, 

 altering their plasma in such fashion that the haemoglobin 

 exudes, the blood being thus "laked." They differ essentially, 

 however, from blood poisons of the ordinary kind, such as, e.g., 

 phenylhydrazine, &c., in acting physiologically as true toxines 

 i.e., producing anti-bodies, antilysines, in the organism. They 

 thus approximate on the one hand to the true toxines, and on 

 the other hand to other hcemolytic liaptines, such as ricine, &c., 

 as well as to the specific hcemolysines which are formed on the 

 introduction of erythrocytes foreign to a body and also in normal 

 sera. Whether these lysines are simple haptines or whether 

 they do not rather consist of amboceptor and complement has 

 not yet been definitely decided ; yet in the case of staphylolysine, 

 at all events, all the arguments up to the present support the 

 view that they are simple haptines (BoiiDET, EHRLICH, and 

 MORGENROTH). 



Of these bacterial hsemolysines only two are as yet definitely 

 known tetanolysine and staphylolysine. Other bacteria also 

 exhibit hsemolytic activity, but it is not yet quite certain 

 whether this is to be attributed to specific lysines, although 

 it is true that in the case of coli-lysine, for example, anti-bodies 

 are known. But the chief argument against their being of the 

 nature of toxines is the fact that they can resist a temperature 

 of 120 C. 



A further interesting point is the fact that there is an extra- 

 ordinary difference in the degree of resistance offered by the 

 blood-corpuscles of different species to the various lysines, and 

 that the erythrocytes of certain species are naturally more or 

 less completely immune against each of them. 



TETANOLYSINE. 



Tetanolysine was discovered by EnRLicn 1 in cultivations of 

 the tetanus bacillus. 



1 Ehrlich, Ges. d. Charittdrzte, [3], ii., 1898; B&rl. Uin. Woch. t 1898, 

 No. 12. 



