154 TOXINES AND ANTITOXINES. 



detected in the fluids of the body, the whole question whether 

 KOCH'S vibrio produces a true toxine must be regarded as an 

 open one. 



The question whether or no the serum of the animals used in 

 the experiments confers antitoxic immunity does not necessarily 

 coincide with that which is alone important, from the theoretical 

 point of view viz., Does it contain anlitoxine ? This antitoxine 

 may possibly be very unstable, or, owing to its small quantity 

 and its great dilution when introduced into the animal, it may 

 become inactive. This would explain the negative results 

 obtained by PFEIFFER, KOLLE, WASSERMANN, ISAEFF, and others 

 in experiments on animals, and of LAZARUS* on convalescent 

 cholera patients, assuming that there really exists a cholera 

 antitoxine, proof of which has certainly not yet been brought. 



TYPHOID VIRUS. 



Almost the same description might be given of typhoid as of 

 cholera virus, only that in this case the experimental material is 

 far more scanty, and the question of the existence of a toxine 

 and antitoxine has hardly passed the first stages of discussion. 



All that is certain is that typhoid bacilli can, under certain 

 conditions, produce true toxine poisoning, and that the bacteria 

 must therefore produce an active poison. On the other hand, it 

 is equally certain that immunity against typhoid bacilli is essen- 

 tially, as in the case of cholera, not antitoxic, but bactericidal, 

 and antitoxic immunity, if it occurs at all, is only of slight 

 importance. 



Here, too, the history of the investigations of the poison begins with the 

 researches of BmEGER,' 2 who first isolated typhotoxine, and subsequently 

 his toxalbumin. These and similar preparations are not the specific 

 typhoid poison. 



On the other hand, as was found by BEUMER and PEIPER, S 

 and subsequently by CHANTEMESSE and WiDAL, 4 cultures steri- 

 lised at 100 to 120 C. in autoclaves are poisonous, the dose 

 being from five to six times that of the living cultures ; the older 

 they are the more toxic they become. 



1 Lazarus, " Ueb. antitoxische Wirksamkeit des Blutserums," Berl. klin. 

 Woch., 1892, Nos. 43-44. 



2 Brieger, Weiteres fiber Ptomaine, Berlin, 1885. 



3 Beumer and Peiper, "Bakt. Stud. lib. Typhusbaz.," Zeit. /. Hyg., 

 ii., 110, 1887. 



4 Chantemesse and Widal, " L'immunite centre le virus de la fievre 

 typhoide," Ann. Past., ii., 54, 1888. Id., " t. experim., &c., de 1'infec- 

 tion typhique," ibid., vi., 755, 1892. 



