552 BACTERIOLOGY. 



or these germicidal constituents of tlie blood he sug- 

 gested the name "alexins." 



Buchner found, moreover, that the activity of the 

 serum alone against bacteria was greater than Avhen the 

 cellular elements of the blood were present. This he 

 explains by the assumption that in the serum alone the 

 germicidal element predominates, whereas in the blood, 

 as such, outside of the body, it is still present, but its 

 influence is counteracted by the nutrition offered to the 

 bacteria by the disintegrated cellular elements ; so that 

 here the nutritive feature is most conspicuous and the 

 destructive activity toward bacteria is less eifectual. 



A closer study of the nature of this germicidal ele- 

 ment in the body of animals was made by Hankin and 

 Martin.' The former isolated from the spleen and 

 lymphatic glands a body — a globulin — which in solu- 

 tion possesses germicidal properties. 



Similar germicidal, ferment-like globulins have been 

 isolated from the blood by Ogata,^ and in their studies 

 upon tetanus Tizzoni and Cattani ^ found a body that 

 was antagonistic to the poison produced by the organism 

 of this disease. 



In 1890 Fodor* showed that the fatal results of 

 anthrax infection could be materially retarded by 

 alkalinization of the circulating blood ; and he further 

 states that it is occasionally possible by the admin- 

 istration of alkalies per os to rescue animals already 

 infected. 



' British Medical Journal, May 31, 1890. 



2 Centralblatt fiir Bakteriologie und Parasitenkunde, 1891, vol. ix, 

 S. 599. 



3 Ibid., p. 685. 



* Fodor : Centralblatt fiir Bakteriologie, 1890, Bd. vii. S. 753-766. 



