858 REPORT—1890. 
appeared by the end of the month. On May 1, B, which seemed perfectiy healthy, 
was re-inoculated with anthrax, and though it died at the same time as a control- 
guinea-pig, namely, thirty-six hours, a large number of phagocytes containing 
bacilli could be found in its spleen. Rabbit C remained emaciated. It seemed to 
have a slight paralysis of the hind legs, and was killed on May 2. The spleen 
showed many macrophages containing pigment granules, The supra-renal capsules 
were enlarged, but no cavity was visible in them. The psoas muscle was reduced 
almost to afilm. In another experiment, in which pepsin was employed in 1 per cent. 
solution in repeated and gradually increasing doses, all three rabbits died within 
thirty-six hours after inoculation; but many splenic phagocytes crowded with bacilli 
were seen. In other respects the appearances were those of typical anthrax. In 
a third experiment six rabbits each received 1-2 c.c. doses of ‘2 per cent. trypsin 
on two successive days. The next day they were inoculated with anthrax, and 
received 1-8 c.c. each of a1 per cent. solution of trypsin. Of these none lived 
longer than sixty hours (the control had died in thirty-six hours). In all except 
one the bacilli were, for the most part, in unusually long chains, and often either 
in, or apparently growing out of, phagocytes. 
In a fourth experiment five rabbits received slightly smaller doses of trypsin, and 
died of typical anthrax at the same time as the control. 
It is obvious that these experiments give but a meagre support to the suggestion 
that the supposed harmful effect of the ferment (as regards the system) can be 
obviated by producing an acquired tolerance against it, and, considering the small 
number of his experiments, and the complicated nature of the factors involved, the 
author is loth to draw any positive conclusion. But the further question arises, viz- 
how, when the ferment does have any action at all, does it produce its effect on the 
course of the disease ? He set out with the assumption that the ferments might exert 
a direct bactericidal action on the microbe. But, considering the minute quantities 
of ferment necessary to produce the results described above, and the complete 
absence of evidence that pepsin and trypsin have any direct antiseptic action, it 
seems hardly likely that this simple explanation is the true one. Another line of 
work that he has recently been engaged in has, however, led him to another more 
probable explanation of these results of ferment injection. In a paper that he 
read last May to the Royal Society, he described a proteid body, which he has 
extracted from the lymphatic glands and spleen of various animals, which has the 
power of destroying anthrax bacilli. Since publishing this paper he has found that 
a bacteria-killing substance can be extracted from the blood of febrile animals. 
For example, a rabbit was inoculated with anthrax; twenty-four hours later, when 
its temperature had risen to 40°-4, it was decapitated and the blood allowed to run 
into alcohol. A watery extract of the precipitated blood showed bacteria-killing 
powers. A watery extract of the blood of a normal rabbit similarly treated 
showed, on the contrary, no distinct bactericidal action. This fact indicates that we 
are dealing with one of the essential elements of the febrile reaction. Probably the 
substance obtained from the febrile blood is identical with the bacteria-killing globulin 
that he obtained from the cells of the spleen, and, if this be so, it seems to deserve 
the name that he has already given it of a ‘defensive proteid.’ In other words, 
the system, when menaced by the attack of a pathogenic microbe, is protected by 
the appearance of this substance in the circulation. Now, a paper on the physio- 
logical action of ferments has recently appearcd,' in which it is shown that these 
substances, when injected into the blood, cause fever, and a diminution in the 
number of the white blood-corpuscles. The author of this paper believes that these 
white blood-corpuscles break up and liberate fibrin ferment. To this he ascribes 
the increased coagulability of the blood which he finds to be present after injection 
of small doses of various ferments. It is conceivable that the defensive proteid 
that the author has discovered would also be thrown into the circulation on the 
injection of ferments. Here, then, we have a possible explanation of the mode of 
action of trypsin and pepsin in modifying the anthrax attack. 
Hildebrandt, Virchow’'s A7chives, vol. ii. p. 1. 
