158 THE AGGLUTININS. 



tive a^lntinating property of each was tested, and it was found that 

 the plasma containing the white corpuscles had no greater action 

 than did that which was devoid of these elements. Of course, this 

 experiment does not indicate that the leucocytes have nothing to do 

 with the formation of a^lutinins in the living body. However, 

 that the agglutinins are in solution in the circulating blood is shown 

 by their appearance in certain secretions and exudates. 



Nicolle reported that the agglutinable substance is soluble in ab- 

 solute alcohol and ether. If this statement had been confirmed, the 

 separation of this body from the proteids would be comparatively 

 easy, but the researches of Winterberg demonstrate that Nicolle had 

 &llen into error on this point. The last-mentioned investigator 

 made the following experiment bearing on the question : A culture of 

 the typhoid bacillus in bouillon, which had grown for seventy days 

 at 37° and which contained a large number of germs, was treated 

 with ten times its volume of absolute alcohol. Tlie precipitate was 

 extracted first with absolute alcohol and then with ether, each of 

 which was decanted after twenty-four hours. Both of these ex- 

 tracts were mixed with the alcoholic filtrate obtained after precipita- 

 tion, and the whole evaporated to dryness in vacuo at 30°. The resi- 

 due was taken up with foebly alkaline bouillon and this solution 

 again precipitated with ten times its volume of absolute alcohol, and 

 the filtrate evaporated as before. The residue last obtained was 

 taken up with bouillon, filtered through porcelain, and the solution 

 fiiOed to manifest any reaction when mixed with a highly active 

 typhoid serum. Winterberg furthermore showed that typhoid ag- 

 glutinin IS produced in animals which have been treated with alco- 

 holic precipitates obtained from both filtered and nnfiltered tpphoid 

 cultures. 



The feet that typhoid cultures, the germs of which have been de- 

 stroyed by the use of disinfectants or the application of heat, still 

 agglutinate homolc^ous sera demonstrates that the agglutinable sab- 

 stance contained in these cultures is not destroyed when the organ- 

 isms are deprived of life. Widal and Sicard found that typhoid 

 bouillon cultures exposed for half an hour to a temperature of from 

 70° to 100° still react when brought in contact with a highly potent 

 serum, bat that the reaction in this case is not so marked as that ob- 

 served in living cultures. The clumps form more slowly and are 

 less volominons. When a typhoid culture was heated for half an 

 hour from 57° to 60° and then brought in contact with an active 

 serum the reaction was found to be apparently identical with that 

 obtained with living cultures. It is evident from these experiments 

 that the a^lutinable substance is not destroyed by the temperatures 

 above mentioned, and that it is present in dead as well as in living 

 caltares. 



Widal and Sicard showed that tiie dried blood of typhoid patients 



