THE IDENTITY OF ANTITOXIN. 



659 



photungstic acid, tannin, and sulphate of ammonium precipi- 

 tate it completely. 



"The active ferment of glanders, mallein, is also albu- 

 minoid in nature. Such is also the case with the diastase of 

 epizootic pneumonia of cattle (Arloing). 



"Between toxic peptones, the albumotoxins of venoms, of 

 toxic bloods and the diastasic ferments, it is difficult to estab- 

 lish a limit other than their origin or their more or less marked 

 activity: 0.00008 gramme of cobra-venom suffice to kill a kilo- 

 gramme of rabbit; 0.0021 gramme of viper-venom, 0.01 gramme 

 of jequirity globulin, or 0.30 gramme of ordinary peptone are 

 necessary to produce the same effects. 



"The gradation is imperceptible from inoffensive albumins 

 to toxalbumins, or peptones; and from peptones to leuco- 

 maines. From toxalbumins to vaccines there is but one step. 

 It is known to-day that viper-venom, and perhaps that of 

 the cobra capello, when heated and injected into the tissues, 

 become true vaccines which preserve animals against the 

 action of these same venoms (Phisalix and Bertrand). But 

 what is remarkable with the action of these soluble poisons, is 

 that, as is the case with vaccines, the toxins appear to act 

 rather as ferments by modifying slowly and deeply the general 

 nutrition of cells, than as chemical poisons. Indeed, their action 

 is not immediate; it is only after a certain period of incubation 

 that the fermentation occurs which gives rise either to immunity 

 or to disease** This, at least, is what occurs with the toxins of 

 heated venoms and with those of tetanus. 



"The slowness of the action of these soluble poisons is 

 nevertheless not contradictory to the theory that their action 

 is purely chemical. Molecules possessed of mixed functions 

 react all the more slowly the one upon the other as they are 

 heavier and less active as conductors. This is the case with 

 albuminoid substances." 



We thus have as main sources of intoxication, which it is 

 the function of trypsin to counteract, the following agencies: 



1. Toxins and diastases secreted ~by bacteria. 



* The italics are our own. 



42 



