March 6, 1903.J 



SCIENCE. 



369 



of being entrusted with these young lives 

 during the formative period. 



Even in a school like ours the faculty 

 can exert a strong personal influence for 

 good and can, if they will, create an atmos- 

 phere of honesty which should be of special 

 benefit to the students in connection with 

 that vexed question of examinations. The 

 responsibility for honest examinations first 

 rests on the examiners. And we must re- 

 ixiember that the man who is not honest in 

 the class-room defrauds his alma mater and 

 weakens and debauches his own character. 



God grant that such an influence shall 

 always be around the students of Stevens, 

 and that so they may go out into the world 

 not only honestly trained to take their 

 places in the engineering pi-ofession, but 

 also influenced to do their whole duty as 

 citizens and self-respecting. God-fearing 

 gentlemen. 



Alex. C. Humphreys. 



TEE SOCIETY OF AMERICAN BACTERIOL- 

 OGISTS. 



The fourth annual meeting of the society 

 was held at the Columbian University 

 Medical School, Washington, D. C, on De- 

 cember 30, 31, 1902. Abstracts of papers* 

 presented at the sessions of the society fol- 

 low herewith : 



Contribution to the Study of Agglutinins: 

 W. W. Ford and J. T. Halsey. (From 

 the Pathological Laboratory, John Hop- 

 kins University.) 



Experiments were undertaken to deter- 

 mine which constituent of the red blood 

 corpuscle takes part in the production of 

 lysins and agglutinins when the blood of 

 one species of animal is used to immunize 

 another species, Bordet stating that the 

 stroma was responsible for the lysins, Nolf 

 maintaining that the stroma was respon- 

 sible for the agglutinins, the laked blood 

 * The abstracts were prepared by the authors. 



for the lysins. In the present experiments 

 rabbits and guinea-pigs were immunized 

 with the stroma and the laked blood of 

 hens; guinea-pigs with the stroma and 

 laked blood of rabbits; rabbits with the 

 stroma, the laked blood, and the washings 

 from the stroma, of the goose; and rabbits 

 and guinea-pigs with the hajmoglobin of 

 hens' and dogs' blood. 



For the preparation of the stroma and 

 the laked blood, the blood was washed with 

 isotonic salt solution, laked with two to 

 three times its bulk of water, made up to 

 one per cent, salt solution, and centrif- 

 ugalized to separate stroma from aqueous 

 solution. Stroma was then washed re- 

 peatedly with water made up to one per 

 cent, salt solution or with isotonic salt 

 solution. 



For the preparation of haemoglobin the 

 blood was collected in ammonium oxalate, 

 washed, laked with distilled water, centrif- 

 ugalized to get rid of the stroma, treated 

 with 25 per cent, absolute alcohol, upon the 

 addition of which the crystals of oxyhcemo- 

 globin are deposited at 0° Centigrade. The 

 dog's haemoglobin crystallizes readily, the 

 hen 's haemoglobin with some difficulty. 



The results of the experiments showed 

 that in all cases the animals immunized 

 with the laked blood and the stroma from 

 rabbits and from hens developed in their 

 sera agglutinins and lysins both far beyond 

 the limits of normal variation, so powerful 

 that frequently in dilutions of 1-100, al- 

 ways in dilutions of 1-50, complete aggluti- 

 nation and lysis took place. The rabbits 

 immunized with goose's blood stroma and 

 aqueous solutions developed agglutinins 

 only— no lysis taking place. The agglu- 

 tinins were present in very high dilutions, 

 at times 1-10,000, always in dilutions of 

 1-1,000. Normal rabbit's serum aggluti- 

 nates goose's blood in dilutions of 1-250 

 or 1-330. The attempt to supply a com- 

 plement for a hypothetical amboceptor 



