Il8 BACTERIOLOGY. 



initiate the putrefaction of proteids and the 

 synthetically-working nitrifying bacteria ; fre- 

 quently also an antagonism is manifested 

 between pathogenic bacteria and the bacteria 

 of putrefaction. Another sort of antagonism 

 may be said to exist between the species that 

 live with and those that live without oxygen, 

 as Pasteur long ago proved. 



Active Proteids, Ptomains, Leucomains. 



By the decomposition of proteids, bodies are 

 formed which must themselves be regarded as 

 proteids and which are powerful poisons. The 

 effect wrought by most pathogenic bacteria is 

 due to the formation of poisons of this nature. 

 Toxic albuminous bodies were first demon- 

 strated by Bruylant and Venneman in 1884, 

 then in 1886 by Weir-Mitchell and E. T. Rei- 

 chert 1 in snake-venom, by Warden and Wad- 

 dell 2 and by Sidney Martin. 3 Later the pres- 

 ence of such bodies was demonstrated in plants 

 by Kobert and Stillmark, and in 1888 the 

 'poisonous quality of the blood-serum of the eel 

 was observed by Mosso. 4 These observations, 

 which seemed to contradict everything that pre- 

 viously and with reason had been believed in 



1 Smithsonian Contrib. to Knowledge, 1886. 



2 Maly's Jahresb., 20, 313. 



3 Proc. Roy. Soc., May 22, 1890. 



4 Arch. f. Exper. Pathol. u. Pharm., 25, in. 



