2 SECTION I. HYGIENIC MICROBIOLOGY AND PARASITOLOGY. 



RACTERIOLYSINS. 



Pfeiffer and Marx 4 inaugurated the first systematic attempts to 

 discover the origin of lytic antibodies. Their work would seem to 

 indicate very clearly that the protective antibodies directed against 

 the cholera spirillum are elaborated in the leucopoietic organs, par- 

 ticularly in the spleen, but to a less extent in the bone marrow, inas- 

 much as extracts of these organs protect guinea pigs from infection 

 before the blood serum does. Deutsch 5 essentially corroborated 

 these findings with B. typhosus and Castellani 6 with B. dysenteriae. 

 Levaditi's 7 conclusions from his work with the spirillum of hen 

 septicemia were likewise corroborative, but his conclusions would 

 not seem justified by the experimental evidence. These authors all 

 agree that the spleen is not essential, as its removal at best but 

 slightly inhibits antibody formation; the bone marrow and lymph 

 nodes are secondarily concerned. 



A careful inspection of Levaditi's experiments would seem to point 

 to the blood stream as a possible source of antibodies, although his 

 conclusions are different. Several authors, however, have attempted 

 to disprove experimentally the local or leucocytic origin of the bac- 

 teriolysins. Thus Stenstrom 8 found that the injection of bacteria 

 plus leucocytes led to less antibody production than the injection of 

 bacteria alone. Pfeiffer and Marx found less antibodies in the 

 ground leucocytes of immunized animals than in the plasma. 

 Deutsch found the lysins were not present in peritoneal exudate and 

 Paetsch 8 extended this finding so as to include both pleural and 

 peritoneal exudates and the lining endothelia of these cavities. 



Violle's 10 injections into the gall bladder for the rapid production 

 of antibodies indicate the possible function of the liver in this con- 

 nection, which is emphasized more distinctly in work with other 

 antibodies. 



HEMOLYSINS. 



Metchnikoff 11 and Cantacuzene 12 originally suggested, on what 

 would seem to be largely philosophical grounds, that the hemolysins 

 may be formed by the leucocytes owing to the recognized phagocy- 

 tosis of blood cells by the mononuclears. The output of " fixatives," 

 according to Metchnikoff, varies directly with the degree of phago- 

 cytosis. There is direct evidence that goes to prove, however, that 

 these bodies are not formed in the blood stream. McGowan 1S 

 showed that no leucocytosis follows the injection of alien blood and 

 Hektoen and Carlson 14 have shown by transfusion experiments that 

 the antigenic properties of foreign blood cells disappear from the 

 circulation within seven hours. 



