CYTOTOXINS 185 



sterile physiological salt solution (0-9-0-95 per cent.) and centri- 

 fuged, and the deposited corpuscles are again washed with salt 

 solution two or three times. Three doses of 1 c.c., 2 c.c., and 3 c.c. 

 respectively are given intravenously on successive days, and after 

 an interval of 5-7 days the rabbit's serum should be strongly h3mo- 

 lytic. Very active hsemolytic sera may be purchased. The serum 

 may be collected aseptically, inactivated by heating to 56 C. for 

 half an hour, and preserved in sealed ampoules. The activity of 

 the hoemolytic arnboceptor must be tested and the appropriate dose 

 of it, complement, and corpuscles ascertained. (For manner of 

 testing, see " Syphilis.") 



CYTOTOXINS. * Anti-sera, analogous to the hsemolysins or hasmo- 

 toxins, may be prepared which have a destructive action upon 

 cellular elements ; these are termed " cytotoxins." If a rabbit be 

 injected with bull's semen, its serum (" spermo toxin ") acquires 

 the property of immobilising the spermatozoa of the bull. The 

 reaction is specific, but spermatolysis does not seem to occur. 

 Similarly, by injecting ciliated epithelium into the peritoneum of a 

 guinea-pig an anti-epithelial serum, or " trichotoxin," is developed. 

 With liver, kidney, and nerve cells anti-bodies having a destructive 

 action upon these cells are developed as a result of their injection. 

 Nephrotoxin, the serum of an animal inoculated with an emulsion 

 of kidney, when injected into a second untreated animal, produces 

 albuminuria and urajmia with disintegration of the epithelium of 

 the convoluted tubules ; hepatotoxin, the serum of an animal 

 treated with emulsions of liver, produces fatty and inflammatory 

 changes in the liver resembling phosphorus poisoning ; neurotoxin, 

 the serum of an animal treated with emulsions of nerve tissues, 

 produces paresis, paralysis, depression, convulsions, etc. ; a leuco- 

 toxic serum obtained by injecting leucocytes agglutinates and dis- 

 solves the leucocytes, and so on. The formation and mode of action 

 of these cytotoxins resemble those of the haemolysins. It was 

 hoped that the study and preparation of cytotoxins would open up 

 possibilities in the way of treating such diseases as carcinoma and 

 sarcoma, but so far this hope has not been realised. 



AGGLUTINATION. If an animal be injected with cultures 

 of typhoid or cholera bacilli, its serum soon acquires the 

 property of agglutinating or of aggregating into clumps the 

 typhoid bacilli or cholera vibrios respectively when mixed 

 with a broth culture of these organisms. The reaction may 

 1 Sue Uulloch, Pracllltoiier, May 1901, p. 499 (Bibliog.) 



