CHAPTER VII. 



THE GERMK'IDAL PROTEIDS OF THE BLOOD. 



As early as 1872 LEWIS and CUNNINGHAM showed 

 that bacteria injected into the circulation rapidly disappear. 

 In the blood of twelve animals, which had been treated 

 with such injections, bacteria could be found in only seven 

 utter six hours. In thirty animals, bacteria were found in 

 the blood of only fourteen after twenty-four hours, and in 

 seventeen animals, bacteria were found in only two when 

 the examination was made from two to seven days after 

 the injection. 



In 1874, TRAUBE and GSCHEIDLEN found that the 

 blood taken from a rabbit into the jugular vein of which 

 forty -eight hours before 1 c.c. of a fluid rich in putre- 

 factive germs was injected, remained without undergoing 

 decomposition for months. These investigators attributed 

 the germicidal proj>erties of the blood to its o/onized 

 oxygen. Similar results were obtained by FODOR and 

 WYSOKOWICZ. The latter accounted for the disappearance 

 of the bacteria not by supposing that they were destroyed 

 by the blood, but that they found lodgement in the capil- 

 laries. 



The first experiments made with extra-vascular blood 

 were conducted by GROHMANN under the direction of A. 

 SCHMIDT. It was found that anthrax bacilli, after being 

 kept in coagulating plasma, were less virulent, as shown by 

 their effects upon rabbits. GROHMANN supposed that in 

 some way the bacteria were influenced by the process of 

 coagulation. 



In 1887, FODOR made a second series of experiments in 

 which he used blood taken from the heart, and showed the 

 marked gcrraicidal properties of this on anthrax bacilli. 



In 1888, NUTTALL used defibrinated blood taken from 



