PTOMAINES AND TOXALBUMINS. 14? 



tremely toxic in its action upon small animals. When injected into 

 guinea-pigs in the proportion of two and one-half milligrammes to 

 one kilogramme of body weight, it caused death after a considerable 

 interval of time (from a few days to several weeks), during which 

 the animal became emaciated and spreading abscesses and necrosis 

 of the tissues occurred at the point of injection. This toxalbumin 

 was obtained in a pure state by repeated precipitation from an aque- 

 ous solution by means of alcohol. It is produced most abundantly 

 in cultures containing albumin, and old cultures are more toxic than 

 recent ones. Chemical analysis gave the following result : C 45, 35, 

 H 7, 13, N 16, 33, S 1, 39, 'O 29, 80. The authors remark, however, 

 that the chemical characters have not yet been fully determined. 



The same chemists have obtained toxic substances of a similar 

 nature from cultures of the bacillus of typhoid fever, of the tetanus 

 bacillus, of the Staphylococcus aureus, and of the cholera spirillum. 

 Hankin had previously obtained a toxic "albumose" from cultures 

 of the anthrax bacillus by precipitation with alcohol, drying, solu- 

 tion in water, and filtration through porcelain ; and Christmas had 

 obtained an albuminous substance from cultures of Staphylococcus 

 aureus which produced pus formation when injected beneath the 

 skin of rabbits or into the anterior chamber of the eye. 



According to Brieger and Frankel, these toxalbumins are divided 

 into two principal groups, one of which is characterized by solubility 

 in water, as in that produced by the diphtheria bacillus ; and one in 

 which the albumin is insoluble or but slightly soluble, as is the case 

 with those obtained from cultures of the typhoid bacillus, the cholera 

 spirillum, and the Staphylococcus aureus. 



The toxalbumin from cholera cultures, obtained as pure as pos- 

 sible and suspended in water, when injected under the skin of a 

 guinea-pig, caused its death in two or three days. It was not, how- 

 ever, toxic for rabbits, even when injected in considerable quantity. 



On the contrary, the toxalbumin of the typhoid bacillus, which is 

 dissolved with difficulty in water, was more poisonous for rabbits 

 than for guinea-pigs. When injected subcutaneously into rabbits 

 death usually occurred in eight to ten days. No notable pathologi- 

 cal changes were observed at the autopsy. 



The toxalbumin of Staphylococcus aureus killed rabbits and 

 guinea-pigs within a few days, and in some cases at the end of 

 twenty-four hours. The post-mortem appearances were necrosis or 

 purulent breaking down of the tissues at the point of injection, with 

 swelling and redness of the surrounding tissues and general inflam- 

 matory appearances. The toxalbumin of anthrax cultures resembles 

 that of the diphtheria bacillus in being soluble in water. It was 

 obtained by Brieger from the organs of animals recently dead from 



