August 4, 1922] 



of much of the feldspar, and of many of the 

 Maine gems and a large variety of minerals; 

 the Lewiston Fajls and a number of other 

 localities. It is hoped that the geologists from 

 other parts of New England will take part in 

 the meeting, and it is expected that Professor 

 George P. Merrill, curator of the National 

 Museum at Washington, will deliver an address 

 in the evening. The headquarters of the asso- 

 ciation will be at the Auburn Cham^ber of 

 Commerce. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 NOTES 



BowDOiN College receives $500,000 under 

 the will of the late Edward H. Blake, of 



Philip A. Lehenbauer, professor of plant 

 pathology at the University of Illinois, has ac- 

 cepted a position as head of the department 

 of horticulture at the University of Nevada. 



Dr. Frederick C. Leonard has been ap- 

 pointed instructor in astronomy and mathe- 

 matics, in charge of the work in astronomy, at 

 the Southern Branch of the University of Cali- 

 fornia in Los Angeles. 



Professor Benjamin A. Wooten, Ph.D., 

 head of the department of physics at the Ala- 

 bama Polytechnic Institute, has been elected 

 professor of physics at Washington and Lee 

 University, in the place of Dr. Walter LeConte 

 Stevens, who has been retired and made pro- 

 fessor emeritus. 



Leland H. Taylor, who received the degree 

 of doctor of science from Harvard in 1922, has 

 been elected to an instruetorship in zoology in 

 West Virginia University. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPOND- 

 ENCE 

 CONCERNING THE BOTULINUS TOXIN 



Recently Bronfenbrenner and Schlesinger' 

 have reported the death of laboratory animals 

 (mice) as a result of the intraperitoneal injec- 

 tion of 3 X 10^-^ cc of a solution of the toxin 

 of B. botnlinus. In a preliminary communica- 



6.06 X 10=3 ^ 



ec would contain 



molecules and 3 X 10" 



SCIENGE 143 



I 



tion- concerning the matter they state that 

 under suitable "conditions of the experiment 

 the botulinus toxin which ordinarily kills mice 

 in amounts not smaller than 3 X 10~^ cc can 

 be increased in potency to such an extent that 

 3 X 10~=^ cc occasionally and 3 X 10—^^ cc 

 quite regularly kills mice of 18-20 g. in less 

 than 48 hours after intraperitoneal injection. 

 While the total solids of such a minute dose of 

 toxin amounts to only 3 X 10^=^ g (this amount 

 also includes the inorganic portion of the me- 

 dium), the toxic product thus obtained, never- 

 theless, possesses all the essential characteris- 

 tics of bacterial toxins," etc. 



Because of the smallness of the quantity 

 it seemed worth while to examine some of 

 the consequences involved. Since a gram 

 molecule of any compound contains 6.06 

 X 10'-^ molecules then one gram of water or 

 approximately 1 ee would contain 1/18 X 

 10=^ 



3 



10- 3 



From the quotation given it is apparent that 

 the solution of toxin can not be even a one per 

 cent, solution, but assuming that it is a one 

 per cent, solution and that the molecular weight 

 and density of the pure toxin are the same as 

 those of water then 3 X 10~°^ ec would contain 

 only one molecule of toxin. However, the 

 molecular weight is probably higher than that 

 of water and not even one molecule in a hun- 

 dred would be a toxin molecule. Consequently 

 the average 3 X 10~=^ cc quantity of solution 

 would contain no toxin. If one takes the larger 

 quantity, 3 X 10~^* cc, which quite regularly 

 kills mice, and assumes that the molecule has 

 ten times the molecular weight oli the water 

 molecule then one hundred molecules of toxin 

 would be present. 



In the case of the smaller quantity it is un- 

 likely that at best more than one or two mole- 

 cules of toxin could have beyn present and 

 since the animal was killed one seems forced to 

 conclude that the life of an organism is de- 

 pendent upon the integrity of one or two cells 

 or that the action of the toxin is catalytic and 



10- molecules 



''^ Journal American Medical Assn., 78: 1519 

 (1922). 



2 Proceedings Society Exper. Biology and Med- 

 icine, 19: 1 (1921). 



