436 BACTERIOLOGY. 



Klemperer have also been obtained by Emmerich and 

 Fowitzky. 1 



In the light of these experiments, the hypothesis 

 advanced by Buchner, that the establishment of immu- 

 nity is to be explained by reactive changes in the in- 

 tegral cells of the body, receives additional support, 

 and when we consider the observations of Bitter, 2 who 

 found that in protective vaccinations against anthrax 

 the vaccines do not disseminate themselves through the 

 body, as is the case when the virulent organisms are 

 introduced, but remain at the point of inoculation, and 

 from this point produce, by the absorption of their 

 chemical products, the systemic changes through which 

 the animal is protected against subsequent infection by 

 the virulent organisms, we feel justified in concluding 

 that the weight of evidence is strongly in favor of this 

 view. 



The experiments that have been cited afford but an 

 imperfect idea of the enormous amount of work that has 

 been done upon the manifold phases of these important 

 subjects ; they may, however, serve to indicate the direc- 

 tion in which the lines of research have been laid. As 

 a result of such investigations, our knowledge upon in- 

 fection and immunity may at present be summarized 

 about as follows : 



1. That infection may be considered as a contest 

 between bacteria and living tissues, conducted on the 

 part of the former by means of the poisonous products 

 of their growth, and resisted by the latter through the 

 agency of proteid bodies normally present in and gener- 

 ated by their integral cells. 



1 Emmerich and Fowitzky ; Munchener med. Wochenschr., 1891, No. 32. 



2 Bitter : Zeitschrift fur Hygiene, 1888, Bd. iv. 



