INFECTION AND IMMUNITY. 427 



was very much accelerated by the addition to it of cer- 

 tain bacteria, and that at the same time the develop- 

 ment of the bacteria was checked, and in the case of 

 the pathogenic varieties their virulence was diminished. 

 This was particularly the case when the anthrax bacillus 

 was employed. 



Grohmann seems to have appreciated the significance 

 of this observation, though he took no steps to study it 

 more closely. He remarks that the system probably 

 possesses, in the plasma of the blood, a body having 

 disinfectant properties (loo. cit., pp. 6 and 33). This 

 work, however, was not conducted according to the 

 more exact methods of modern bacteriological researcji, 

 so that the complete demonstration of this phenomenon 

 must be attributed to Nuttall. 



Since the publication of NuttalPs work his results 

 have received confirmation from all sides. Fodor, 1 

 Bnchner, 2 Lubarsch, 3 Nissen, 4 Stern, 5 Prudden 6 Charrin, 

 Roger, 7 and others have continued in the same line, and 

 have all made practically the same observation. 



After the demonstration by Nuttall that the serum of 

 the blood was directly detrimental to the vitality of 

 certain pathogenic bacteria, it became the work of a 

 number of investigators to determine to which element 

 of the serum this property is due, or if it is a function of 

 the serum only as a whole. 



In the course of Buchner's experiments it was demon- 



Centr. f. Bakteriologie u. Parasitenkunde, 1890, vol. vii., No. 24. 

 Archiv fiir Hygiene, 1890, vol. x. parts 1 and 2. 

 Centr. f. Bakt. u. Parasitenkunde, 1889, vol. vi., No. 18. 

 Zeitschr. fiir Hygiene, 1889, vol. vi. part 3. 

 Zeitschr. fiir kliu. Med., 1890, vol. viii. parts 1 and 2. 

 N Y. Med. Record, 1890, vol. xxxvii., pp. 85, 86. 

 7 Soe. de Biol. de Paris. 



