162 TOXINES AND ANTITOXINES. 



added 2 per cent, of nutrose, and contained peptone and serum 

 albumin as necessary ingredients. 



While he found that the living gonococci distributed in a 

 physiological solution of salt had absolutely no toxic effect upon 

 animals, the sterilised culture, on the other hand, had a fairly 

 energetic poisonous influence, and killed the animals by periton- 

 itis on intraperitoneal injection, though it also produced, e.g., 

 keratitis with hypopyon in the eyes, &c. 



The nitrate had but a slight poisonous action. Hence it would 

 seem that the poison, just as in the case of cholera, is retained 

 within the cells. In its resistance to heat, even at the tempera- 

 ture of boiling, it also resembles the so-called cholera poisons. 



Very similar results were obtained, independently of WASSER- 

 MANN, by NicoLAYSEN, 1 who, by means of sterilised, non-filtered 

 cultivations, produced purulent gonorrhoea in animals. 



He found the lethal dose for a mouse to be 0-3 c.c. He, too, 

 is of opinion that the poison is firmly retained within the cells, 

 for he was unable to separate it either by extraction with dis- 

 tilled water or with dilute soda solution. 



Almost simultaneously ScHAFFER 2 succeeded in obtaining from 

 a cultivation of four days' growth an aqueous decoction of ascites 

 and flesh, a poison which, after filtration through a porcelain 

 filter, produced on the urethral mucous membrane acute sup- 

 puration which rapidly disappeared. At about the same time 

 the question of gonotoxine was studied by CHRISTMAS. 3 He 

 obtained, by means of filtration through porcelain, from cultures 

 of ten to fifteen days' growth, in media of ascites and bouillon, 

 a poison which he was able to concentrate by precipitation with 

 alcohol. He also prepared a poison by evaporating the cultures 

 with glycerin at 50 C. This was stable at 50 C. to 70 C., and 

 could be kept for six months in the dark. It had a very virulent 

 effect upon animals, producing, in addition to local inflammation, 

 cachexia, ending in death. It only acted upon the mucous 

 membrane of the urethra in the case of man. 



CHRISTMAS 4 subsequently made a new investigation of the 

 subject. He found that the living gonococci contained poison, 

 but that, on the other hand, the dead cells yielded none when 

 macerated at 20 C. He cultivated the gonococci on a nutrient 



1 Nicolaysen, " Zur Pathogenitat und Giftigkeit der Gonokokken," 

 Centralbl.f. Balct., xxii., 305, 1897. 



2 Schaffer, "Beitr. z. Frage d. Gonokokkentoxine," Fortschr. d. Afed., 

 1897, 813. 



3 Christmas, " Le Gonocoque et ses toxines," Ann. Past., xi., 609, 1897. 



4 Christmas, "Contrib. a 1' etude du Gonococcus," Ann. Past., xiv., 331, 

 1900. 



