TOXINES PR OD UCED B Y BA C TERIA \ 5 3 



THE TOXINES PRODUCED BY BACTERIA. 



Early Work on Toxines. We know that bacteria are 

 capable of giving rise to poisonous bodies within the 

 animal body and also in artificial media. As we shall see, 

 we know comparatively little of the actual nature of such 

 bodies, and therefore we apply to them as a class the 

 general term toxines. The fact that in the case of many 

 diseases, undoubtedly caused by bacteria, the latter are 

 not distributed throughout the body, directed attention to 

 the necessity for the existence of such toxines in order to 

 explain the general pathogenic effects occurring in such 

 circumstances. The first to systematically study the pro- 

 duction of poisonous bodies by bacteria was Brieger. 

 This observer, directing attention to general putrefactive 

 processes as they occurred under natural conditions, e.g., 

 in putrefying flesh, etc., isolated a series of crystalline 

 nitrogen-containing bodies giving the reactions of alkaloids, 

 and which he called ptomaines. Similar bodies occurring 

 in the ordinary metabolic processes of the body had pre- 

 viously been described and called leucomaines. Brieger 

 further isolated ptomaines from media containing pure 

 cultures of many of the pathogenic bacteria. These 

 ptomaines, however, on being injected into animals sus- 

 ceptible to the corresponding diseases, in no case except, 

 perhaps, in tetanus, reproduced characteristic symptoms ; 

 and even in tetanus the effects produced only bore a dis- 

 tant resemblance to those caused by the injection of the 

 bacillus itself. Brieger's methods of obtaining these bodies 

 were faulty. For instance, his use of hot mineral acids in 

 the treatment of the crude material was shown to be 

 sufficient to cause serious changes in the complex albumin- 

 ous bodies present. His earlier results have therefore only 

 a historic interest. 



The introduction of the principle of rendering fluid 

 cultures bacteria-free by filtration through unglazed porce- 

 lain, and its application by Roux and Yersin to obtain, 

 in the case of the B. diphtheriae, a solution containing a 



