The Agglutinins 123 



application, in that the micro-organism being known, the effect 

 produced by a serum upon it would be an indication of the infec- 

 tion of the animal from which the serum was secured. The first 

 practical application was made in connection with the diagnosis of 

 typhoid fever, and the brilliant success attending it has led to the 

 test being known as the " Widal reaction." 



The agglutinins are stable substances that resist drying and can 

 be kept dry and active for years. Widal and Sicard found that they 

 pass with difficulty through a porcelain filter and do not dialyze.> 

 They are precipitated in part by 1 5 per cent, of sodium chloride that 

 throws down fibrinogen and further precipitated with magnesium 

 sulphate, which throws down globulins. They therefore thought 

 them to be intimately related to the globulins and to fibrinogen. A 

 temperature of 6o°C. diminishes their activity, but they are not 

 destroyed below 8o°C. Sunlight has no effect upon them. 



Metschnikoff looks upon agglutination as preliminary to phagocy- 

 tosis and to bacteriolysis, and thinks it the effect of enzymes in the 

 serum preparing and clustering the bacteria to be taken up by the 

 phagocytes. Ehrlich* finds in the agglutinins nothing more than 

 receptors of what he denominates the II order, each of which 

 possesses a zymophore and an agglutinophore group. 



Malvozf found that the addition of chemical substances, such as 

 safranin, vesuvin, and corrosive sublimate, to cultures of the typhoid 

 bacilli would cause their agglutination. Typhoid bacilli retained 

 on the Chamberland filter and washed for a long time, could no 

 longer be agglutinated, and were found to have lost their flagella 

 and to be without motion. This led Dineur,t who made additional 

 experiments, to conclude that agglutination depended upon the 

 flagella. Malvoz§ found that bacteria were sometimes agglutinated 

 by their own metabolic products. He prepared a fresh culture of 

 the first vaccine of the anthrax bacillus by thoroughly distributing 

 it through 3^ cc. of distilled water, and then added a loopful of a 

 sk-day-old culture. After standing for a few hours typical agglu- 

 tinations were observed under the microscope. 



H. C. Ernst and Robey|| found that flagella have nothing to do 

 with agglutination, which subsequent experiment has shown to be 

 correct, as non-flagellated bacteria can be agglutinated by their 

 respective serums quite as well as the flagellated forms. 



Bail,** Joosft, Eisenberg and VollJJ have shown that all of the 

 agglutinins possess haptophore and agglutinophore groups, either 

 of which may be destroyed without the other. Thus typhoid 



* See Nothnagel's "Specielle Pathologie und Therapie," 1901, Vlll. 



t "Ann. de I'lnst. Pasteur," 1897, No. 6. 



t "Bull, de I'Acad. de Med. de Belgique," 1898, iv, p. 703. 



§ "Ann. de I'Inst. Pasteur," Aug. 25, 1899. 



II "Trans. Cong. Amer. Phys. and Surg.," 1900, p. 26. , 

 ** "Archiv f. Hyg.," 1902, xm. Heft 4. 

 ft "Zeitschr. f. Hyg.," 1901, xxxvi, p. 422. 

 jjlbid., 1902, XL, p. 155. 



