THE CONSTITUENTS OF DIPHTHERIA TOXIN. 



493 



This table shows that the four poisons contain considerable amounts 

 of toxoids in addition to the prototoxoids. The affinity of these 

 toxoids is more or less small, as can be seen from the curves plotted 

 by Madsen and myself. From this it follows that in the interpreta- 

 tion of the results obtained by neutralizing diphtheria poison due 

 attention must be paid to the decisive influence exerted on the course 

 of the partial neutralization by the toxoids notoriously present in such 

 considerable amounts. It is incorrect, therefore, to refer the decreased 

 binding of antitoxin, such as is seen in the tritotoxoid zone, to the 

 boric acid-ammonia scheme. 



It will be well, by means of a concrete example, to study some- 

 what more in detail the course of this toxoid formation. For this 

 purpose 1 shall select a poison w r hich I have already described in my 

 publication on the constitution of diphtheria poison l as Poison No. 5. 

 At that time I briefly gave the spectrum and the constants based on 

 the investigations which I and my friend Donitz had carried out. In 

 this poison the conditions were most interesting and yet extremely 

 simple: The L dose was 0.125 cc.; the Lf dose 0.25 cc., that is, just 

 twice as much. The L. D. was 0.0025 cc., so that the LQ dose contained 

 exactly 50 L. D. and the L t dose exactly 100 L. D. These facts 

 caused us to make the thorough analysis. This poison, as is so often 

 the case, suffered certain transformations, whereby it became weaker. 

 These changes occurred in three phases characterized by the formation 

 of different kinds of toxoids. The spectra of these phases are as fol- 

 lows (Fig. 1). 



The phases in which the content of toxin shows itself are I, II, and 

 IV; phase III, which deals with the toxons, will be considered in a 

 separate chapter. 



As a result of all my experiences with similar poisons, as well as 



' Deutsche med. Wochensch. 1898, No. 38. 



