ANIMAL TOXINS. 6l 



kidney a very toxic pyrogenic substance.* Roger 

 has given us evidence of the toxic properties of 

 the liver, washed and pulped, and then sterilized 

 by filtration through a porous diaphragm. This 

 scientist has shown that the toxic properties are 

 due to albuminoids, which lose their activity when 

 heated to 100 C.f 



It must be remarked that the organs we have 

 studied are essentially reducers, and that the 

 more powerful reducers yield the most toxic ex- 

 tracts. We find here a confirmation of Armand 

 Gau tier's views regarding tlje anaerobic origin 

 of the toxic substances formed within the or- 

 ganism. J 



Blood serum precipitated by alcohol affords prod- 

 ucts which possess very marked toxic power. It 

 would appear that the toxic products we speak of 

 here are thermogenic diastatic substances derived 

 from the white blood corpuscles. In certain diseases 

 the blood serum may acquire a high degree of 

 toxicity. We will recur again presently to this 

 property as a normal characteristic of the blood of 

 various animal species, and will study it in greater 



* LEPINE: Compt. rend, de I'Acad. des Sciences, May 13, 1889; 

 Soc. de B-io!., 1891, p. 724. 



t ROGER: Compt. rend. Soc. Biol., 1891, p. 727. 



t Pozzi-EscoT: Compt. rend. del'Acad. deMedecine (3), XLVII, 

 p. 400. See also Pozzi-Escor: Etat actuel de nos Connais- 

 sances sur les Oxydases et les Reductases. Dunod, publ., Paris, 

 1902. 



