ANTI-ANTHRAX SERUM 261 



Also a number of cattle have been infected as the result 

 of drinking water from rivers and creeks receiving the 

 waste liquors from these works. 



Houston 1 detected the anthrax bacillus in a catch-pit 

 in a hide factory at Yeovil, and in sewage and effluents 

 and in the mud of the Yeo. It has also been met with 

 in linseed cake and oats. 



Toxins. From pure cultures of the Bacillus anthracis 

 Hoffa obtained small quantities of a ptomine, which pro- 

 duced fall of temperature and haemorrhages, and Hankin 

 isolated a proteose which in large amounts was fatal, but 

 in small amounts conferred immunity to subsequent 

 inoculation with living bacilli. Brieger and Frankel 

 obtained a tox-albumin from animals dead of anthrax. 

 Marmier, by growing the anthrax bacillus in a solution of 

 peptone, glycerin, and salts, and subsequently precipitating 

 with ammonium sulphate, obtained a toxin which he states 

 is neither protein nor basic, and is contained within the 

 bacterial cells. 



Sidney Martin, 2 by growing the anthrax bacillus in 

 alkali albumen for ten days, obtained from the culture 

 albumoses and an alkaloidal substance. From the bodies 

 of animals which had died of the disease, chiefly from the 

 spleen and blood, he obtained similar substances, the 

 amount of alkaloid being more than double that of albu- 

 mose. The mixed products produced fever in animals 

 followed by coma and death. The albumose was proved 

 to be the fever, and the alkaloid the coma, producer ; 

 the latter also caused a spreading oedema at the seat of 

 inoculation. 



Anti-serum. An anti-serum for anthrax was prepared 

 by Marchoux by immunising sheep by vaccination and 

 then inoculating with progressively increasing doses of 



1 Second Rep. Commis. on Sewage Disposal, 1902, p. 31. 



2 Brit. Med. Journ., 1892, vol. i, p. 641. 



