498 



NA TURE 



[March 23, 1905 



Brieger, in 1885, then showed the same to be true for 

 tetanus and typhoid. Loftier, 1887, and Hankin, 1890, 

 then showed the same to be true for diphtheria and for 

 anthrax, and the toxins of tetanus, cholera, &c., were ob- 

 tained shortly afterwards. 



Thus was founded the doctrine of toxins. The bacilli 

 of disease do not merely induce the formation of ptomaine 

 poisons in the decomposing tissues ; they form the toxins 

 in their own cells, and then excrete them. 



The lecturer then referred to the similarities of the 

 venenenes of snakes, scorpions, and spiders ; of the toxins 

 in eels' blood; and of the vegetable toxins ricin, robin, &c., 

 emphasising the fact that all these bacterial, animal, vege- 

 table, and fungal poisons belong to one and the same great 

 family of toxic bodies. 



The horribly intoxicating and poisonous drink made 

 by certain Siberian and Kamschatkan peoples from the 

 fly .Agaric, the dry gangrene and paralysis due to 

 ergotism, now a rare disease in western Europe, and 

 the effects of the toxins of tetanus, diphtheria, and other 

 bacilli, all have points in common with the poisons of 

 snakes, of certain seeds, and so on — certain Australian 

 species of Swainsonia impel horses which have eaten it to 

 behave as if trying to climb trees, or to refuse to cross a 

 twig as if it were a large log, reminding one of the effects 

 of Amanita muscaria on man. 



In great part, if not entirely, owing to an experiment of 

 Nuttail's in 1888, in which he found that normal blood has 

 bactericidal properties, researches were undertaken which 

 resulted in the discovery that the sera of animals, either 

 normally or if rendered immune by minimal doses of toxins, 

 contain antidotal substances to the toxins. Behring and 

 Kitasato, in iSgo, who demonstrated the antitoxic power of 

 blood immunised with diphtheria or tetanus to the toxins 

 of these bacilli, were followed in rapid succession by Brieger, 

 Ehrlich, Pick, and others, and the doctrine of the anti- 

 enzymes and antitoxins was established. 



The lecturer then gave two illustrative cases. Dunbar, in 

 1903, showed that hay-fever, as already maintained by 

 others, was not only due to the pollen of grasses, but he 

 isolated from the pollen-grains a toxin which itself induces 

 all the symptoms of the malady. 



Not only so. He showed that the serum of horses, &c., to 

 which the hay-fever is communicated becomes antitoxic 

 to the malady. This antitoxin has been distributed, and the 

 statistics uphold the accuracy of Dunbar's views. 



That pollen-grains contain enzymes has long been known, 

 and the experiments of Darwin and others have shown that 

 some pollens are poisonous to the stigmas of the wrong 

 plant. ."Another suggestive illustration is that given by 

 Woron, in which, bees having conveyed pollen, together 

 with the spores of a Sclerotinia, to the stigmas of certain 

 species of Vaccinium, the pollen-tubes and the fungus-hypha; 

 race each other down the style, and the latter usually' win, 

 and destroy the ovules. Moreover, everyone knows how 

 corrosive and destructive the pollen-tubes of pines, &c., are 

 in the tissues, and we must not forget that pollen-grains are 

 spores. 



The second case dwelt on by the lecturer is that of pellagra, 

 a disease to which the ill-nourished peasantry of maize- 

 growing countries are liable in bad seasons, when the crops 

 are poor and mouldy. 



Cene and Beste, in 1902, referred the malady to the 

 presence of an Aspergillus in the bad grain. They also ex- 

 tracted from this mould a highly toxic body. Mariani, in 

 1903, then showed that the blood of patients cured of 

 pellagra is antitoxic to the poison of the disease. 



The lecturer pointed out that, without committing our- 

 selves to any premature opinion as to the absolute accuracy 

 of these views, there are two increasing classes of evidence 

 which support his suspicion that numerous as yet insuiTici- 

 ently examined cases of this kind will turn out to be due 

 to what he calls " lurking parasites " in bad grain and 

 fodders. 



The first is the large class of mycoses now referred to the 

 poisonous action of such a " mould " as Aspergillus, a fungus 

 shown to abound in enzymes and toxic bodies. The second 

 is the increasing number of cases of poisoning by fodder 

 and grain-plants, normally wholesome, but found to be 

 deleterious in certain circumstances or years. 



Cases of poisonous wheat, oats, &c. — the " Taumel- 



NO. 1847, VOL. 71] 



Getreide," " Taumel-Roggen " of the Germans — have long 

 been known, and the lecturer quoted cases where similar 

 noxious effects are traced to the presence of Ustilaginea;, 

 Hclminthosporium, Cladosporium, and other fungi. 



A notable case is that of the Darnel, a tiresome weed in 

 some countries. The ancients — e.g. Galen — knew that darnel 

 in bread causes dizziness, headache and sickness, and 

 thought that neglected wheat, &c., was transformed into 

 darnel. Hofmeister, in 1S92, examined and extracted the 

 toxic bodies, and confirmed the repeated statements as to 

 their deleterious and even fatal action on animals. 



Yet it was not until 1898 that Vogl discovered the 

 existence of a mycelium in the seed-coats of the poisonous 

 darnel, and in the same year this was confirmed by Hanausek 

 and Nestler, though they did little beyond recording the 

 presence of a fungus. 



In 1903, Freeman, in the lecturer's laboratory at Cam- 

 bridge, worked out the details, and left no doubt that the 

 poisonous property is due to the fungus. 



The lecturer then pointed out that a whole series of 

 questions concerning these and similar diseases now being 

 investigated in his laboratory lie under suspicion of con- 

 nection with grain-poisoning, or at any rate with poisoning 

 of fungi introduced as food. 



To say the least, we want further and extensive researches 

 from this point of view into the aetiology of Acrodymia in 

 Mexico, Algeria, &c., and of the Colombian Pelade, of the 

 " trembles " of cattle and sheep, and of the " milk sick- 

 ness " of the North American prairies, and even diseases 

 like beri-beri, &c. 



The conclusions, the lecturer pointed out, to which we 

 are driven may be thus summarised : — 



(i) Fungi, like animals and other plants, including 

 bacteria, excrete enzymes, and utilise them in the same way 

 and for the same purposes. 



(2) The poisons of the fungi are toxins, not only similar 

 in character to the poisonous alkaloids, toxalbumens, &c., of 

 the bacteria, and of the higher plants, the venenenes of the 

 snakes, &c., but their poisonous actions in the paralysis of 

 nerve-ends, &c., are essentially the same. 



(3) These poisons, &c., introduced into the blood of 

 animals, call forth the activities of antitoxins and anti- 

 enzymes, as do the to.xins of animals, bacteria, &c., in 

 similar circumstances. 



(4) The presumption is, therefore, justified that the action 

 of the enzymes and toxins of parasitic fungi on the proteid 

 cell-contents of their plant-hosts is similar in principle lo 

 that on animal proteids, and that the host reacts by means 

 of anti-enzymes and antitoxins. 



The lecturer then adverted to the difficulties of obtaining 

 the toxins and antitoxins from sap, and concluded by 

 showing in specitic cases — the rusts of wheat and grasses — 

 how probable it is that, since no anatomical features explain 

 the facts of predisposition and immunity, and the latter 

 cannot be referred to climatic conditions or to peculiarities 

 of soil, &c. , the above considerations will be found to apply, . 

 a matter dealt with elsewhere by the lecturer. 



TRYPANOSOMIASIS AND EXPERIMENTAi^ 

 MEDICINE.' 

 ■"PHE greater portion of the first Report deals with the 

 subject of human trypanosomiasis, particularly in the 

 Congo district. The trypanosomata are flagellated pro- 

 tozoa, which have been found to be parasitic in many 

 animals, sometimes causing no symptoms, as in the rat, 

 but sometimes associated with serious effects, as in the 

 tsetse-fly disease of the horse. During the last few years try- 

 panosomata have been found to be parasitic in man ir» 

 various districts of West and Central .iVfrica. If the 

 infected person shows irregular fever without other marked 

 symptoms the condition has been termed trypanosomiasis ; 

 if in addition there is somnolence and stupor, and later 

 wasting, convulsions, and fatal coma, the condition is the 



^ " Reports of the Trypanosoiniasis Expedition to the Congo, 1903-1904. 

 Liverpool School of Tropical Med-"-"'- m«"«;- «"! D" ... /,«„. 



Price _ 



'The Tb 

 (N 



Memoir 



Pp. III. (i904.> 



iiic 1 iioiiipson-Yates and Johnston Laboratories Report." Vol. vi. 

 (New Scries), Part i., January, 19^5. Pp. 205. (University Press of Liver- 

 pool ; London: Williams and Norgate.) Price i2j-. 6(^. 



