1 5 4. THE TOXINES PR OD UCED B Y RA C TERIA. 



toxine which reproduced the symptoms of this disease 

 (vide Chap. XV.), encouraged the further inquiry as to the 

 nature of this toxine. The products of the B. diphtheriae 

 were investigated again by Brieger, now in conjunction with 

 C. Fraenkel. The filtrate was evaporated to a third of its 

 bulk in vacuo, at a temperature not exceeding 30 C., and 

 was precipitated by alcohol. The precipitate was redis- 

 solved in water, reprecipitated by alcohol, and this opera- 

 tion being repeated six to eight times a final product 

 in the form of a white powder was obtained. The 

 chemical procedure was thus in principle simple, and the 

 toxine stood the two tests given by the original fluid, 

 namely (i) its specific toxicity to animals, and (2) destruc- 

 tion of its toxic power by two hours' exposure to a tem- 

 perature of 58 C. This substance, if it did not consist 

 entirely of the diphtheria toxine, certainly contained the 

 latter, and from resemblances observed in it to serum 

 albumin, was called by its discoverers a toxalbumin. 

 Similar toxic bodies were obtained in the same way from 

 the bacteria of tetanus, typhoid, and cholera, and also 

 from the staphylococcus aureus. In the case of tetanus, 

 in the one experiment recorded, where the toxalbumin was 

 injected into a guinea-pig, death with spasms and paralysis 

 resulted. With the other toxalbumins, however, though 

 death occurred from their injection, no characteristic 

 symptoms or pathological effects were observed. These 

 toxalbumins presented no special chemical reaction, though 

 the authors considered them allied to serum albumin. 

 They probably consisted largely of albumoses, 1 and con- 

 tained the toxic bodies in mixture with other substances. 

 The Occurrence of Bacterial Toxines. The following 



1 In the digestion of albumins by the gastric and pancreatic juices the 

 albumoses are a group of bodies formed preliminarily to the elaboration 

 of peptone. Like the latter they differ from the albumins in their not 

 being coagulated by heat, and in being slightly dialysable. They differ 

 from the peptones in being precipitated by dilute acetic acid in presence 

 of much sodium chloride, and also by neutral saturated sulphate of 

 ammonia. Both are precipitated by alcohol. The first albumoses 

 formed in digestion are proto-albumose and hetero-albumose, which 



