178 TOXINES AND ANTITOXINES. 



The sterilised liquid was inoculated and allowed to stand for 

 eight days, after which it was filtered, and the filtrate treated 

 with ammonium sulphate. The precipitate was dialysed at 

 .42 C., and the liquid evaporated in vacuo, or treated with 

 alcohol. This yielded an albumose, which weakened bacteria did 

 not give. Yery small doses (one part of a 1 :1 million solution 

 per kilo, of body weight in the case of mice) immediately pro- 

 duced immunity against anthrax, but this was not the case with 

 large doses, which had only a toxic, but not immunising action. 



Similar toxic albumoses isolated almost at the same time from anthrax 

 cultures and the organs of animals by MARTIN x and BRIEGER and FRANKEL,' 2 

 caused symptoms somewhat resembling those produced by the living bacilli. 

 Yet the definite results of all these investigations of toxalbumins 3 were very 

 insignificant, as was eventually the case with all the toxalbumins. Martin's 

 albumose, for example, had to be given in doses of 0'3 grm. per mouse (!) 

 to produce death. 



According to the views now accepted, there can certainly be no 

 toxine activity here. The anthrax bacilli have naturally decom- 

 posed the proteids of the culture medium, and either traces of 

 poison have been retained by the resulting albumoses, or the 

 proteids foreign to the body that have been produced have in 

 themselves a slight toxic action, as is also the case with other 

 proteids. 



In any case, PETERMANN,* who repeated HANKIN'S work, was 

 unable to detect any trace of toxic or immunising activity in his 

 albumose, though HANKIN and WESBROOK (loc. cit.), observing 

 under more accurately specified conditions, and, in particular, 

 avoiding temperatures above 20 C., still maintained their posi- 

 tion, and also again obtained frequently, though not invariably, 

 transient immunisation. 



An important point in PETERMANN'S investigation is the proof 

 that anthrax cultures when simply filtered have a slight and 

 transient, but unmistakable, immunising effect ; this would seem 

 to point to the presence of a real toxine, which, however, can 

 only be present in very slight quantity. 



1 Martin, "The Chemical Products of the Growth of the Bacillus 

 Anthracis," Proc. Roy. Soc., xxii. [5], 1890. 



2 Brieger and Frankel, " Untersuch. iiber Bakteriengifte," Bert. Tdin. 

 Woch., 1890 [11-12]. 



3 Similar investigations with equally scanty results were also made about 

 the same time by, e.g., Balp and Carbone (1891), Landi (1891), G. Klem- 

 perer (1891), Maltzew (1891) ; for particulars about these the reader must 

 be referred to Conradi (loc. cit. ). 



4 Petermann, " Recherches sur Fimmun. contre le charbon au moyen des 

 albumoses extraites des cultures," Ann. Past., vi., 32, 1892, 



