1 54 BACTERIOLOGY. 



The " specific " action of bacteria must there- 

 fore not be represented too simply and schem- 

 atically. There is always involved the ques- 

 tion of a reciprocal action, a struggle of the 

 complicated bacterial cells with the compli- 

 cated body-cells. 



In general, we understand by the " specific " 

 poisonous action of bacteria, the action of the 

 poisons or toxins split off from proteids inside 

 or outside the bacterial cell. The bacterial 

 protoplasm is able, not only to form such 

 " specific " poisons by the demolition of pro- 

 teid compounds, but also to build them up out 

 of simple substances such as ammonium lactate 

 and asparagin. (Hueppe has shown that this 

 is .true also for the pigment bacteria). The 

 action of these poisons is therefore not the 

 same as the general action of bacterial proto- 

 plasm, for the effect of the latter is due to its 

 being foreign proteid. In the latter connec- 

 tion it has been shown that the poisonous 

 effect of foreign proteids, even when it is ex- 

 erted by bacteria, always consists in a lowering 

 of the body temperature, while the " specific " 

 poisonous effect consists sometimes in a height- 

 ening sometimes in a lowering of temperature, 

 and in other cases expresses itself in other 

 and various symptoms, such as paralysis, con- 

 vulsions or necrosis, compared to which the 



