278 BA CTERIOL O Y. 



tended. Througli the work of these investigators we now 

 know that the pathogenic properties of staphylococcus 

 pyogenes aureus are due to a definite soluble toxin elab- 

 orated by it : that this poison is produced under arti- 

 ficial conditions of cultivation, and may be separated 

 from the living organisms by filtration; that when 

 injected into the living animal body its effects upon the 

 tissues are essentially reproductions of those accompany- 

 ing the growth of the organism itself; that when this 

 action is tested upon particular cells, such as erythro- 

 cytes and leucocytes, two distinct properties are exhib- 

 ited, one a hsemolytic, through which the red corpuscles 

 of the blood are dissolved, the other a leucocidic, through 

 which the white blood-corpuscles are destroyed ; that 

 the hsemolytic and leucocidic properties are distinct 

 from one another, and are due to the activities of two 

 lysins, of which the staphylotoxin is (in part?) com- 

 posed, and which may be separated from one another by 

 appropriate methods of analysis ; that the result of the 

 treatment of animals with gradually increasing non-fatal 

 doses of staphylotoxin is the appearance in the blood of 

 the animals of antitoxic bodies (antilysins) that inhibit 

 the action of the toxins (lysins) ; and, finally, that in 

 the serum of certain animals (man and horse) similar 

 antilysins in varying amounts are normally present." 



THE LESS COMMON PYOGENIC ORGANISMS. 



The pus of an acute abscess in the human being 

 may sometimes contain other organisms beside stajjhylo- 



1 See van de Velde : Annales de I'lnstitut Pasteur, tome x, p. 580. 

 Krauss: Wiener klin. Wochensohrift, 1900, No. 3. Von Liugelsheim: 

 Etiologie uud Therapie der Staphylokoken Infektion (mouograpli), 

 Berlin-Wien, 1900. Neisser and Wechsberg: Zeitsclirift fiir Hygiene 

 und Iiifektionskraukheiten, 1901, Bd. xxxvi. S. 299. 



