22 POISONOUS PKOTEINS 



due. The statement that the fats and waxes in- 

 cluding the phosphatide and "mykol" cannot be 

 removed from the tubercle bacillus with alcohol 

 and ether without previous disruption with 

 strong acid is erroneous. In our work, first 

 published in 1908, we showed that prolonged 

 extraction of tubercle cell protein with alcohol 

 and ether removed from the cells the substance 

 to which the "acid-fast" property is due. We 

 extracted first with alcohol in Soxhlets for four 

 days and then with ether for three days. There 

 is therefore no ground for the assumption by 

 Tamura that either the phosphatide or the 

 "mykol" is in chemical combination with the 

 proteins of the cellular substance. It is much 

 more reasonable to regard them as substances 

 either on their way to assimilation into the cell 

 molecules or as excretory products. Tamura 

 says : ' ' My investigations show that the pres- 

 ence of the diamino-phosphatide is not confined 

 to the higher organisms." This is another as- 

 sumption that the molecular structure of bac- 

 terial cells is simple and is wholly without jus- 

 tification. It is additional support of my con- 

 tention that chemically the bacterial cell is high- 

 ly complex and should not be regarded as a 

 primitive form of life. Tamura 's work on the 

 cellular proteins strongly supports my claim 



