82 BACTERIOLOGY. 



Perhaps the exceptions to the rule above noted 

 may be explained on the assumption that the 

 molecular structure of living cells has led to 

 great differences in the structure of the un- 

 stable proteid of the living protoplast, and that 

 chlorophyl-containing and chlorophyl-free cells, 

 as well as the various cells of the different 

 organs and tissues in animals and plants, pre- 

 sent, through adaptations, variations with which 

 the atom groupings of chemicals have to reckon. 

 It is true in general that disinfectants whose 

 action upon protoplasm is simply that of a 

 poison do even more damage to the cells of 

 man and other animals than to the bacterial 

 cell. In spite of this fact the internal use of 

 an antiseptic substance is conceivable. Beh- 

 ring has found in the case of- a number of 

 chemical substances that a sub-cutaneous 

 inoculation of approximately one-sixth part 

 reckoned upon the weight of the test ani- 

 mal of that quantity of a given substance 

 which, in blood-serum, arrests the development 

 of the anthrax bacillus certainly kills the ani- 

 mal and that, consequently, inhibition of bac- 

 terial development and poisorn >us action upon 

 man and the lower animals go hand in hand. 

 But apart from the fact that we cannot yet 

 make a universal application of the above 

 rule, the experiments made up to this time indi- 



