20 Mr E. H. Hankin, On the Injection of Ferments. [Nov. 11, 



rate a post mortem constituent of most of the animal tissues, and 

 I think these experiments seem to uphold a theory first sug- 

 gested to me by Dr Lauder Brunton, that the "germicidal power" 

 that the animal body seems to possess is connected with the 

 power it had of producing ferments. This suggestion that I have 

 either increased or closely imitated the natural germicidal power 

 by ferment injection is supported by the symptons exhibited by 

 rabbit No. 37 which finally recovered. As mentioned above, a 

 quantity of pus was found at the seat of inoculation. This is 

 rendered interesting by the fact that a similar effect is produced by 

 inoculating with anthrax an adult rat, an animal which is natu- 

 rally refractory to this disease. In the case of rabbit No. 37 and 

 of a rat inoculated with anthrax we find a large pus formation at 

 the seat of inoculation ; that is to say, not increased activity on 

 the part of the leucocytes but an increased degeneration of these 

 cells. Does it not seem probable that these cells give out certain 

 substances (possibly ferments) which hinder or prevent the growth 

 of the bacilli till at length they can be devoured like any other 

 inert granules by the active phagocytes ? 



Lastly, these experiments suggest another possibility; namely, 

 that by injecting ferments, other microbes which cannot easily be 

 cultivated outside the body of the animal may be attenuated 

 within it. Possibly in this way attenuated tubercule bacilli could 

 be obtained which might be used as a means of vaccinating 

 against consumption. 



Note. Since communicating the above results to the Society, 

 I have succeeded in obtaining similar results by injection of 

 Halliburton's cell globulin after inoculation with anthrax. This 

 cell globulin is a proteid, obtained from cells of the lymphatic 

 glands, which is either identical with fibrin-ferment or very closely 

 connected with it. In my experiments with this substance, the 

 elongation of the spleen bacilli was not always so marked as 

 with pepsin and trypsin, but longer chains could always be found 

 in the lymphatic glands near the seat of inoculation. Perhaps 

 more of the individual joints were degenerated than in my former 

 experiments, and in cases where the chains did not consist of many 

 members, the individual joints were often unusually long. I have 

 not yet finished this course of experiments, but the results, as far 

 as they go, support the view I have enunciated in my paper con- 

 cerning the mechanism of the germicidal power ; and the fact that 

 two out of three substances which I have employed are probably 

 constituents of leucocytes appears to me to be particularly sug- 

 gestive. 



December 7, 1889. 



