Bacteriolysis 



13s 



by injecting an animal with the dissociated liver cells of a heter- 

 ologous animal, a hepatolytic serum could be produced. 



The iechnic of these investigators is not difficult. It is, however, first neces- 

 sary to prepare a homogeneous tissue pulp for injection into the animal that is 

 to furnish immune serum. For this purpose it is necessary to grind the tissues, 

 when solid, in some kind of mill, one of the best forms of apparatus being that 

 of Latapie.* After the pulp is made, it is diluted to a convenient extent with 

 physiological salt solution and then injected into the experiment animal in the 

 same manner as is the blood for making the hemolytic serum. After animal has 

 received a number of injections made at intervals of a few days and is thought 

 to be "immunized" it is bled and the serum separated. The remaining steps 

 in the experiment do not diflfer essentially from those of hemolytic experiments. 

 The tissue suspension, having about the same concentration as the 5 per cent. 

 NaCl suspensions of the corpuscles, is used as the constant quantity and the 

 immune serum used as the variable quantity. The tissue suspension or antigen, 

 the immune serum or amboceptor, and the complement in normal guinea-pig 

 serum are brought into contact in small test-tubes, kept for twenty-four hours in 

 the refrigerator, and the amount of solution gauged by the naked eye supple- 

 mented by microscopical examination of the tissue elements. 



Fig. 28. — ^Latapie's instrument for preparing tissue pulp. 



Bacteriolysis. — The first observations upon bacteriolysis were 

 made in 1874 by Traube and Gscheidel,t who found that freshly 

 drawn blood was destructive to bacteria. The matter was pur- 

 sued by numerous subsequent investigators and was explained by 

 Buchner as depending upon alexines. Pfeifferf described the 

 peculiar reaction known as "Pfeiffer's phenomenon." Ehrlich and 

 Morgenroth§ and Bordet|| described the mechanism of cytolysis, 

 explaining the "Pfeiffer phenomenon" and paving the way for 

 future experiments. 



Direct destruction of bacteria by blood-serum and body juices 

 is rare, and occurs only when the serum contains appropriate 



* "Ann. de ITnst. Pasteur," 1902, xvi, p. 947. 



t "Jahresb. der schles. Ges. f. vaterl. Kultur," 1874. 



j "Deutsche med. Wochenschrift," 1896, No. 7. 



§ "Berliner klin. Wochenschrift," 1899. 



Il "Ann. de I'Inst. Pasteur," 1898, xii. 



