TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION B. 611 



to a condition of brittleness favourable to their trituration without the addition of 

 such substances as sand and Kieselguhr, which might modify the composition of 

 the resultant product. 



The method, if successful, would meet the conditions desired for the subse- 

 quent study of the intracellular juices. It may be briefly stated that by the 

 application of low temperatures a mechanical trituration of every variety of cell 

 j)er se has been accomplished, and the fresh cell plasma obtained for the purpose 

 of experiment. A number of control experiments have demonstrated that 

 immersion in liquid air is not necessarily injurious to life — bacteria, for example, 

 having survived a continuous exposure for six months to its influence. The actual 

 trituration of the material is accomplished in a specially devised apparatus, which is 

 kept immersed during the operation in liquid air. 



The normal and diseased animal tissues have been treated in this manner, and 

 their intracellular constituents obtained — e.g. epithelium, cancer tissues, &c. 



Moulds, yeasts, and bacteria have been rapidly triturated under the same con- 

 ditions and the respective cell juices submitted to examination. 



The severest test of the capabilities of the method was furnished by the 

 bacteria, an order of cells for which the standard of measurement is the mikron. 

 The experiments proved successful in every instance tested. The typhoid bacillus 

 for example, is triturated in the short space of two to three hours, and the demon- 

 stration has been furnished that the typhoid organism contains within itself a 

 toxin. From these and other researches it has become evident that there exists a 

 distinct class of toxins and ferments which are contained and operate within the 

 cell or bacterium, in contradistinction to the now well-known class of toxins, which 

 are extra-cellular — i.e. extruded during life from the cell into the surrounding 

 medium. To this latter class belongs the diphtheria toxin, which has been so 

 successfully used in the preparation of diphtheria antitoxin. A number of infective 

 organisms do not produce appreciable extra-cellular toxins, and the search must 

 therefore be made within the specific cells for the missing toxins to which the 

 intoxication of the body in the course of tbe disease in question is probably 

 due. The practical utility of investigating these intracellular toxins has already 

 become evident in the preparation from the intra-cellular toxin of the typhoid 

 bacillus of a serum having antitoxic value as regards this toxin. 



The experiments made with the pus organisms have already shown that intra- 

 cellular toxins exist in this important order of disease germs. The cell juices 

 of other types of pathogenic bacteria such as the tubercle and diphtheria bacillus 

 present characteristics of equal interest. 



The application of low temperatures has aided the investigation of certain 

 other biological problems. 



The photogenic bacteria preserve their normal luminous properties after 

 exposure to the temperature of liqnid air. The efl'ect, however, of a trituration at 

 the same temperature is to abolish the luminosity of the cells in question. This 

 points to the luminosity being essentially a function of the living cell, and depen- 

 dent for its production on the intact organisation of the cell. 



The rabies virus has not yet been detected or isolated, although regarded as an 

 organised entity. The seat of the unknown rabies virus is the nervous system. 

 If the brain substance of a rabid animal be triturated for a given length of time at 

 the temperature of liquid air, its infective properties as regards rabies are abohshed. 

 This result appears to be a further indication of the existence in rabies of an 

 organised virus. 



The method described admits of a fresh study of the question of immunity 

 from an intra-cellular standpoint. 



The mtra-cellular juices of the white blood-cells have been obtained, and 

 tested with regard to bacteriolytic properties, and the natural protection that may 

 thus be aflbrded to the body against the invasions of micro-parasites. 



The application of low temperatures to the study of biological problems hns 

 furnished a new and fruitful method of inquiry. 



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