June 27, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



1027 



ical reaction involved being pi'obably an 

 oxidation. These bodies contain an oxydase 

 or oxidizing ferment, and it is known that 

 such oxidizing bodies as permanganate of 

 potash and chloride of lime easily oxidize 

 most if not all of the toxalbumins and thus 

 render them harmless. Any substance, 

 therefore, which is capable of developing 

 a larger number of white corpuscles in the 

 body would serve as a kind of antitoxine 

 against these poisons and it would not ap- 

 pear to be necessary that each particular 

 toxine should have a separate antitoxine. 

 Indeed, experiments show that antitoxines 

 are not chemical antagonists to toxines, but 

 act simply as stimulants to the body to 

 manufacture its own antidote. Certain 

 chemicals, such as sodium hypochlorite and 

 nuclein, an albuminoid obtained from 

 ca?sine or from beer yeast, stimulate the 

 production of these cells, and these sub- 

 stances may, therefore, be looked upon as 

 antitoxines. Whether or not these sub- 

 stances will also stimulate the white cor- 

 puscles or the other oxidizing organs of 

 the body so that they will offset the effect 

 of plant poisons is a problem which is yet 

 to be solved. It is not known how many 

 poisons the leucocytes are able to destroy 

 in the body, but if their action is really in 

 the nature of an oxidation we may assume 

 that all poisons which are harmless when 

 oxidized, as plant poisons are apt to be, 

 would be destroyed by them whenever they 

 gained access to the blood, providing, of 

 course, that the leucocytes were in suffi- 

 cient abundance to do the work. We see 

 then the great importance both from the 

 poisonous-plant point of view and for 

 general prophylactic effect against disease 

 of building up an animal's system so that 

 it will contain a maximum quantity of 

 leucocytes. It is probably impossible to 

 stimulate the formation of leucoc3i;es so 

 rapidly that the process would be available 

 for immediate treatment in cases of acute 

 poisoning, but, since it requires only four 



or five days to produce immunity to snake 

 venom by repeated injections of a dilute 

 solution of the chloride of lime, it might 

 possibly be useful in chronic cases where 

 the poison concerned is harmless when 

 oxidized. 



A particularly interesting phase of ox- 

 idation in relation to germicidal action 

 has recently been investigated by Profess- 

 ors Freer and Novy at the University of 

 Michigan. Their preliminary paper shows 

 an interesting comparison of the germi- 

 cidal effect of: 



Hydrogen peroxide H — — O — H. 



Benzoyl peroxide C^HjCO— 0— 0— COC0H5. 



Acetyl peroxide CH3CO— 0— 0— COCH3. 



Benzoyl acetyl peroxide. CoH^CO — 0—0 — COCH3 



It will be noticed that the three organic 

 compounds are symmetrical like that of 

 hydrogen peroxide. The amount of avail- 

 able oxygen in each compound is the same 

 but the germicidal action of each varies 

 greatly. The use of hydrogen peroxide as 

 a germicidal agent, especially in strong 

 solution, is well known. Benzoyl peroxide 

 is almost insoluble in water and is not 

 hydrolyzed ; it is therefore of no value as 

 a germicide. The last two compounds 

 have no germicidal value of themselves, 

 but they are readily hydrolyzed in the 

 presence of water yielding benzo peracid 

 CeHjCO— — OH, and aceto peracid 

 CH3CO— 0— OH, both of which have a 

 very marked germicidal value. These or- 

 ganic peracids or peroxides are, according 

 to the authors, at least several hundred 

 times more active than is hydrogen perox- 

 ide. The active oxygen content is the 

 same in each, so that the difference in ef- 

 fect cannot be due to nascent oxygen. 

 Hydrogen peroxide loses its available 

 oxygen readily and even violently on con- 

 tact with enzymes, but these organic per- 

 oxides do not. The authors were, there- 

 fore, forced to the conclusion that the 

 difference in action is due to the behavior 

 of the acid ions. In this case, therefore, 



