THE TOXINES OF THE BACILLUS. 387 



original toxicity. This he attributes to such factors as 

 temperature and light, and especially to the action of 

 oxygen. 



Various attempts have been made to find out the nature 

 of this toxine. Sidney Martin derived from the organs of 

 persons dead of tetanus two classes of bodies. One of these 

 consisted of a purified alcoholic precipitate (formed chiefly 

 of albumoses). To these he attributes a fever-producing 

 action. The other bodies were those soluble in alcohol 

 and also in ether. They were non-proteid, and to them he 

 attributed the excitation of the muscular spasms in tetanus. 

 Uschinsky, moreover, has found that the bacillus can pro- 

 duce its toxine when growing in a fluid containing no 

 proteid matter. The toxine may thus be formed independ- 

 ently of the breaking up of the proteids on which the 

 bacillus may be living, though it no doubt has a digestive 

 action on these. Brieger also has now apparently come to 

 the conclusion that the toxicity of the toxalbumins originally 

 described by him is due to the presence of a non-proteid 

 body. In his latest paper he describes the isolation, by a 

 special method, of a toxine which is neither peptone, 

 albumin, nor albuminate, and the nature of which is quite 

 unknown. 



It is thought by some that a diastase is concerned in the 

 toxic action of the tetanus bacillus. Like a ferment, the 

 toxine is destroyed, as we have seen, by comparatively low 

 temperatures, but it may simply be an unstable chemical 

 compound, for albuminous bodies not diastatic in nature 

 may be changed at similar temperatures. The liquefaction 

 (i.e., probable peptonisation) of gelatine cultures advances 

 pan passu with the development of toxines,and filtered 

 bacterium-free cultures will still liquefy gelatine. It may 

 be, however, that there is developed, in addition, a peptic 

 ferment which will, of course, also pass through the filter. 

 For if equal portions of the filtered culture be left in 

 contact with equal portions of gelatine for various lengths 

 of time, there is no increase of toxicity in those kept 

 longest. There is thus no fresh development of toxine 



