STREPTOTOXINE. 163 



medium consisting of 75 per cent, of ascites and 25 per cent, of 

 bouillon, and filtered the cultures through talc on the filters or 

 through kieselguhr, since the porcelain filter retained the poison. 

 The maximum of toxic power was reached on the twentieth day. 

 He then precipitated the poison with ammonium sulphate or 

 alcohol. If subsequent dialysis was employed the symptoms of 

 poisoning, it is true, were different, but the lethal dose remained 

 unaltered. 



The poison was completely destroyed at 75 to 80 C., but 

 could resist a temperature of 60 C. 



Its action, on subcutaneous injection, was very weak, the 

 lethal dose for guinea-pigs being 5 to 10 c.c. On the other hand, 

 it acted very energetically after intercerebral injection, producing 

 convulsions and dyspnoea, and killing a guinea-pig, even in a dose 

 of O002 c.c., within six hours. 



It is stated to possess strong immunising properties, affording 

 protection up to one hundred times the dose of poison after 

 intercerebral injection, but to a much smaller extent after sub- 

 cutaneous injection. This antitoxic immunity has not been 

 observed in the smallest degree by other investigators. 



MOLTSCHANOFF 1 prepared a toxine from a culture in hydrocele 

 fluid and yeast peptone bouillon. He made use of unfiltered 

 cultures, which he sterilised at 70 C. He made a special study 

 of the action of the poison upon the central nervous system, but 

 I cannot give the details of his results here. 



GROSZ and KRAUS S and ScHoi/rz 3 absolutely deny the specific 

 nature of gonotoxine, and simply regard it as a non-specific, pus- 

 producing bacterial protein; they point out that SCHAFFEB'S 

 urethritis, at all events, can also be produced by the living or 

 dead cells of other bacteria (pyocyaneus, coli, &c.). 



"We have, therefore, again to draw the same conclusions about 

 gonococci poison as in previous instances. The existence of 

 a specific antitoxine-producing gonotoxine has not yet been 

 proved. 



STREPTOTOXINE. 



In considering the metabolic products of the streptococci we 

 meet with the same obscurity as in the case of gonotoxine. The 

 existence of a true anti toxin e-forming toxine is still open to 

 question. 



1 Moltschanoff, " Ueber das Gonokokkentoxin und seine Wirkung auf 

 das Centralnervensystem," Munch, med. Woch., 1899, 1013. 



2 Grosz and Kraus, " Bakteriol. Studien iiber den Gonococcus," Arch.f, 

 DermatoL, xlix., 3, 1899. 



3 Scholtz, "Beitr. z. Biologic d. Gonococcus," ibid. 



