468 BACTERIOLOGY. 



an exposure to a temperature of 55° C. for half an 

 hour ; that its efficacy as a germicide was not dimin- 

 ished by alternate freezing and thawing ; that by dialy- 

 sis or extreme dilution with distilled water its germicidal 

 activity was diminished, or completely checked; but 

 that an equal dilution could be made, if sodium chlo- 

 ride solution (0.6-0.7 percent.) was substituted for the 

 distilled water, without the bactericidal action of the 

 serum losing any of its power. From this he con- 

 cluded that the active element in this phenomenon is a 

 living albumin, an essential constituent of which is 

 sodium chloride, and which, when robbed of this salt, 

 either by dialysis or dilution, becomes inert in its be- 

 havior toward bacteria. For this or these germicidal 

 constituents of the blood he suggested the name " alex- 

 ines." 



He found, moreover, that the activity of the serum 

 alone against bacteria was greater than when the cellu- 

 lar elements of the blood were present. This he ex- 

 plains 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 effectual. 



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. 



1 British Medical Journal, May 31, 1890, 



