428 BACTERIOLOGY. 



strated that the serum was robbed of this property by 

 an exposure to a temperature of 55 C. for half an 

 hour ; that its efficacy as a germicide was not diminished 

 by alternate freezing and thawiug; that by dialysis or 

 extreme dilution with distilled water, its germicidal 

 activity was diminished, or completely checked ; but that 

 an equal dilution could be made, if sodium chloride so- 

 lution (0.6-0.7 per cent.) was substituted for the dis- 

 tilled water, without the bactericidal action of the serum 

 losing any of its power. From this he coucluded that 

 the active element in this phenomenon is a living albu- 

 min, an essential constituent of which is sodium chloride, 

 and which, when robbed of this salt, either by dialysis 

 or dilution, becomes inert in its behavior toward bacteria. 

 For this or these germicidai constituents of the blood 

 serum he suggested the name " Alexines." 



He found, moreover, that the activity of the serum 

 alone against bacteria was greater than when the cellular 

 elements of the blood were present. This he explains 

 by the assumption that in the serum alone the germi- 

 cidal element predominates, whereas in the blood, as 

 such, outside of the body, it is still present, but is over- 

 balanced by the nutrition offered by the disintegrated 

 cellular elements ; so that here the nutritive element is 

 most conspicuous, and the destructive activity toward 

 bacteria is less effectual. 



A closer study of the nature of this germicidal ele- 

 ment in the body of animals was made by Hankin and 

 Martin. 1 The former isolated from the spleen and 

 lymphatic glands a body a globulin which in solution 

 possesses germicidal properties. 



i British Medical Journal, 1890, May 31. 



