184 TOXINES AND ANTITOXINES. 



cultivated. If the serum of an infected animal be separated 

 from the vibriones that it contains the latter are far more 

 virulent than when the serum is also present. 



From these results it appears that the vibrio is capable of 

 increasing in the body of the animal, and that it produces 

 toxines there which are injurious. But in an immune animal 

 or in immunised serum, and also in the serum of the diseased 

 animal, there are antitoxines which combine with the poison 

 and render the vibrio harmless, although it continues to grow 

 in the immune animal. If the antitoxine be removed the poison 

 again becomes active, as is also the case when the vibrio is culti- 

 vated upon new culture media. 



Unfortunately, SANARELLI did not attempt to isolate, by means 

 of filtration, the toxine that was probably present. He only 

 found cultures killed at 60 C. and 120 C. to be poisonous, and 

 naturally was unable to produce any antitoxic immunity against 

 the secondary poison which he obtained at 120 C. The latter 

 is certainly not a toxine, although it would seem that a true 

 toxine is produced by these bacteria and may possibly be demon- 

 strated by careful work. 



DYSENTERY TOXINE. 



A toxine supposed to be that of dysentery was found by 

 RosENTHAL 1 in the nitrates of cultures three weeks old. The 

 nitrates, in doses of 0-1 to 0-2 c.c., had a fatal effect upon rabbits. 

 The poison is stated to be fairly resistant to heat and to form an 

 antitoxine. 



1 Rosenthal, "Das Dysenterietoxin," Deutsch. med. Woch., 1904, No. 167. 



