BACILLI OF JEQUIBITY OPHTHALMIA. 349 



jequirity oplitlialmia could not be conveyed to liealtliy 

 eyes by pus or pieces of the membranous exudation, that 

 further the blood of frogs containing bacilli or the 

 oedematous fluid of warm-blooded animals infected with 

 jequirity by no means always causes infection in other 

 animals ; on the contrary, it was only possible to 

 transmit the disease in this way when the animals first 

 infected were inoculated with such large doses of a con- 

 centrated infusion that in the second transmission a 

 considerable portion of the original infusion was carried 

 over. Cornil and Berlioz, who were the first to observe 

 the transmission of the jequirity disease from one animal 

 to another, have worked with these great concentrations, 

 and hence have obtained an apparent reproduction of 

 the virus, which, however, does not take place if the 

 first infection is caused by smaller doses and less 

 concentrated material. 



All these observations imply that the active agent of The action 



...... -. i . . depends en 



the jequirity seeds is not a virulent micro-organism, a so iubie 

 but a soluble poison, and, as a matter of fact, Salomonsen 

 and Dirckinck, and likewise Bruylants and Yennemann, 

 succeeded in obtaining a poisonous material of this 

 character in a concentrated form by extracting the 

 pounded seeds with glycerine. The glycerine extract 

 was precipitated with alcohol, the precipitate dried, 

 extracted with water, again precipitated, and then dis- 

 solved in water or glycerine. These solutions of 

 jequiritine had an extremely intense action, even the 

 quantity contained in r or,th millegramme of jequirity 

 seeds being sufficient to set up marked conjunctivitis in 

 rabbits, and the extract when injected subcutaneously 

 rapidly causes the death of mice and frogs. Thus it is 

 clear that the action of the jequirity seeds is only due 

 to the presence in them of a poison soluble in water 

 and glycerine, insoluble in alcohol, ether, benzine, and 

 chloroform, and completely deprived of its power by keep- 

 ing it for one hour at a temperature of 65 to 70 C. 



Against the explanation of all the jequirity symptoms 

 as the result of the action of an unorganised virus, we 

 have only the observation made by Cornil and Berlioz 



