

POISONOUS METABOLIC PRODUCTS. 73 



which do not dissolve in ether. For extensive review of 

 literature upon ptomains, see Jacquemart (C. B. ix, 107). 



4. Production of Complex "Albumin=like " Poisonous 

 Metabolic Products ("Toxalbumins," Toxins). 



In addition to the discussion of the relatively simply 

 formed, basic, less poisonous metabolic products of bac- 

 teria, we may speak, as briefly as possible, of the other 

 bacterial poisons. From the standpoint of our present 

 knowledge, they may be divided into three classes: 



1. Bacterioplasmin (Buchner). Compare Hahn, 

 Munch, med. Wochenschr., 1897, No. 48, 1344. The ex- 

 pressed juice (compare pp. 29 and 65) of bacteria contains, 

 in ordinary unchanged form, poisonous substances ; pres- 

 ent in the bacteria of cholera, typhoid, and tuberculosis; 

 absent in Micr. pyogenes and Bact. anthrax. Koch's 

 new tuberculin, "TR," is essentially also a plasmin. 



2. Bacterioprotein (Buchner). Under this head are 

 placed albuminous bodies, unaltered by heat, which pro- 

 duce fever (pyrogenic), inflammation, and suppuration 1 

 (phlogogenic). They are obtained by boiling for several 

 hours scraped potato-cultures with 0.5% caustic potash 

 (about 50 volumes KHO to 1 volume of bacterial sub- 

 stance). The protein may be precipitated from the clear 

 fluid obtained by filtering through paper, by carefully 

 rendering it feebly acid. The protein is filtered out, 

 washed and dried, and before being employed is dis- 

 solved in a small quantity of weak soda solution. 



The best-known protein is the "old" tuberculin of 

 Koch ; also mallein belongs here. According to Buchner 

 and Romer, all bacterial proteins act alike and not specif- 

 ically. 



3. "Toxalbumins," now usually called toxins. The 

 isolated statements of earlier investigators (Christmas, 

 Roux and Yersin, Hankin) were confirmed to a great ex- 

 tent by the investigations of C. Frankel and Brieger (Berl. 

 klin. Wochenschr., 1890, 241 and 268), who found that 



1 Suppuration is best produced by bacterial and non-bacterial prod- 

 ucts if they slowly diffuse from a gelatin capsule into the subcutane- 

 ous tissues (Poliakoff, C. B. xviii, p. 33). 



