178 PUBLIC HEALTH BACTERIOLOGY 



Some bacteria give rise to both varieties, and it is now 

 claimed that this is the case with cholera and dysentery 

 organisms. 



Nature of Toxins. The nature of toxins is likewise 

 ill understood. Sidney Martin found that the action of 

 anthrax, diphtheria, tetanus, and ulcerative endocarditis 

 organisms on albuminous bodies was to produce albumoses 

 and peptones, thus resembling the gastric and pancreatic 

 ferments. C. J. Martin, working at the same subject, 

 found that the toxins could pass through a Chamberland 

 filter, the pores of which had been filled with gelatin. 

 From the fact that albumoses can also pass through, it 

 is inferred that the toxins have a molecule of about the 

 same size as the albumoses. Are the toxins of the nature 

 of ferments ? Sidney Martin suggests that the primary 

 toxic agents are of this nature, and by digesting the tissues 

 produce albumoses, which cause the symptoms. The 

 labile nature of the toxins is also urged as a point of 

 resemblance between them and the ferments, as also the 

 so-called period of incubation which follows their injection. 

 If it is a fact that the action of a toxin is strictly propor- 

 tional to its dose, comparison between toxins and the 

 ferments is rendered unnecessary, as this is a fundamental 

 difference ; the so-called resemblances are then mainly 

 fortuitous. 



Allied Animal and Vegetable Poisons. Ricin, 

 abrin, robin, and venins. Major Lamb calculates that 

 0-015 g rm - ( rou ghly, J grain) of cobra venom is a fatal 

 dose for a man, which is large in comparison with the 

 minimum lethal dose of tetanus toxin for man of 0-00023 

 grm. (about ^-^ grain). All these poisons resemble the 

 soluble bacterial toxins, but are less easily dialysable, and 

 hence have been called toxalbumins. The snake poisons 

 are very complex bodies, containing one or more of 

 several toxins, such as neurotoxins, cell toxins, hemolytic 

 toxins, etc. 



Flexner and Noguchi discovered that the hemolytic 

 toxin of the cobra venom has no action by itself on the 

 red cells, but requires the presence of normal serum. 

 The latter is then said to contain a " complement " which 

 "activates" the venom. Kyes and Sachs farther showed 



