xvii.] SEPTIC AND PATHOGENIC ORGANISMS. 163 



is used fifteen minutes after it is made and used as above, for 

 inoculation of test-tubes and eyeballs. The fluid in the test- 

 tubes after incubation remains limpid, the eyeballs all become 

 inflamed. In both series the amount of fluid inoculated into 

 the test-tubes is more than twice as great as that injected into 

 the eyeballs. From this it is quite clear that the fluid used 

 for inoculation of the test-tubes was barren of any micro- 

 organisms, and nevertheless it possessed a powerful poisonous 

 principle. I do not mean to say that the infusion as a whole 

 contained in the flask contains no organisms, but that the 

 small quantity of the fresh infusion that was used for the 

 inoculation of the test-tubes and eyeballs contained none is 

 absolutely certain. When such a flask is placed in the in- 

 cubator, after twenty-four to forty-eight hours or later there 

 are found in it large quantities of bacilli, the spores of which 

 must have entered from the air during the process of preparing 

 the infusion. The bacilli are such as described by Sattler ; 

 thej soon form spores in the^ usual way. Such an infusion if? 

 very poisonous, just like the fresh one. Sattler has sho\vn, 

 and this is easily confirmed, that the spores of these bacilli 

 stand boiling for a few minutes without losing their power to 

 germinate. Consequently, if such a poisonous infusion full of 

 bacilli and spores be boiled for half a minute the spores are 

 not killed ; proof for this : that if with a minute dose of this 

 spore containing boiled infusion any suitable sterile nourishing 

 material in test-tubes be inoculated, and then these test-tubes 

 be placed in the incubator at 35 C., after twenty-four to forty- 

 eight hours the nourishing fluids are found teeming with the 

 jequirity bacilli ; but no amount of this material produces the 

 least symptom of ophthalmia. Every infusion of jequirity loses 

 its poisonous activity by boiling it a short time, | to 1 minute, 

 and hence the above result. 



In this respect the poisonous principle of jequirity infusion 

 comports itself similar to the pepsin ferment, which, as is well 

 known, is destroyed by short boiling. 



If an infusion is made as above, and after fifteen minutes it 

 is filtered and then subjected to boiling for |-1 minute, it will 

 be found to have become absolutely non-poisonous, but not 

 sterile, placing it in the incubator after twenty-four to forty- 

 eight hours, vast numbers of the jequirity bacillus are found 

 in it. But no amount of this fluid is capable of producing the 

 slightest symptom of ophthalmia. 



A large percentage of the rabbits, whose conjunctiva has 

 been inoculated with the fresh unboiled poisonous infu- 

 sion, die after several, three to eight, days. The eyeballs and 



M 2 



