OLANBEBS. 101 



MaUgnant (Edema.— Kerry found that the bacillus of this dis- 

 ease decomposes albumin with the formation of fatty acids, leucin 

 hydroparacumaric acid, and a foul-smelling oil of the composition 

 ^sHifiOr This oil is insoluble in water, alkalis, and acids, easily 

 soluble in ether, benzol, bisulphid of carbon, and alcohol. It is 

 optically inactive and on being oxidized forms valerianic acid. 

 Nothing is said concerning its action upon animals. Among the 

 gaseous products are carbonic acid, hydrogen, and marsh gaa. The 

 author was unable to determine whether or not free nitrogen was 

 present. 



Puerperal Fever — Bourget concludes a research on this disease 

 with the following statements : 



1. In puerperal fever the urine contains highly poisonous bases. 



2. The toxicity of the urine is most marked when the symptoms 

 of the disease are most grave, and diminishes as the symptoms abate. 



3. The ptomains obtained from the urine prove fatal when injected 

 into frogs and guinea-pigs. 



4. Toxic bases, resembling those obtained from the urine, were 

 extracted from the viscera of a woman who had died of puerperal 

 fever. 



Glanders. — The toxin of this disease is contained in the bacterial 

 cell, and is known as mallein or morvin. Sterilized cultures of the 

 glanders bacillus containing the chemical poison are used in horses 

 in the same way that tuberculin is employed to diagnose tuberculosis 

 in cows. In glandered horses the subcutaneous injection of small 

 quantities of mallein causes a more marked elevation of temperature 

 than it does in healthy animals. However, Schattenfroh has shown 

 that a like effect is produced in glandered horses by the injection of 

 toxins from other bacteria. Commercial mallein is prepared in a 

 number of ways, one of which is as follows : Growths of the glan- 

 ders bacillus, from ten to fourteen days old, on potatoes, are removed 

 with a sterilized spatula and rubbed up with sterilized water in the 

 proportion of one part of the moist bacillus to nine parts of water. 

 This emulsion is allowed to stand for twenty-four hours, and then 

 heated to 110° for fifteen minutes ; next, it is filtered through por- 

 celain, 30 per cent, of glycerin added, and concentrated at low tem- 

 perature on the water-bath to one-eighth of the original volume. 

 This is again sterilized at 110° and the preparation, now ready for 

 use, consists of a clear, yellowish, odorless fluid of feebly acid or 

 neutral reaction. Kressling found in mallein prepared by the above 

 method peptons, globulins, xanthin, guanin, small quantities of tyro- 

 sin and leucin, and traces of volatile fatty acids and ammonia. 



