118 BACTERIAL POISONS. 



arm of a man with tetanus, thus showing that this chemical 

 poison is formed in the body as well as in the artificial 

 cultures. 



Beieger and Frankel obtained a " toxalbumin " from 

 a culture of Kitasato's germ in bouillon containing grape- 

 sugar. This substance is soluble in water, and when in- 

 jected in small amounts subcutaneously in guinea-pigs, 

 tetanus appears in about four days, and soon terminates 

 fatally. On the other hand, cultures of the bacillus of 

 TizzoNi and Cattani in bouillon with sugar fail to pro- 

 duce any chemical poison, but the cultures in gelatin are 

 highly poisonous after filtration through porcelain. Even 

 one-half cubic centimetre of the latter induces the disease 

 and death in rabbits weighing from one and a half to two 

 kilogrammes. Death results never later than three days, 

 while, as has been seen above, the first symptoms induced 

 by the poison from the bacillus of Kitasato usually 

 appear on the fourth day. Briegee and Frankel ob- 

 tained their jDroteid by precipitation with absolute alcohol, 

 but the addition of this agent to cultures of the germ of 

 TizzoNi and Cattani destroys its poisonous properties. 

 The active substance of the Italian germ was obtained 

 either (1) by dialysis, solution in water, and evaporation in 

 a vacuum; or (2) by precipitation with ammonium sul- 

 phate, separation by dialysis, and drying in a vacuum. 

 This poisonous body is soluble in water, non-dialyzable, 

 destructible by a temperature above 60°, and by treatment 

 with concentrated mineral acids, and is unaffected by alka- 

 lies or by prolonged treatment with carbonic acid gas. It 

 contains a ferment which iiquefies gelatin and digests fibrin. 

 This peptonizing ferment is active only in alkaline solu- 

 tion, and is present in the bouillon cultures which are not 

 poisonous ; therefore, the poison and the peptonizing fer- 

 ment must be two distinct bodies. However, on account 

 of the properties which we have mentioned, TizzoNi^and 

 Cattani conclude that the poison also belongs to the 

 soluble ferments or enzymes. WW 



BuscHETTiNi has studied the distribution of thisjpoison 



