3^4 BACTERIA. 



property,— Still setting up distinct local reactions. Loffler 

 eventually concluded that he was dealing with an enzyme. 



I have already mentioned Roux and Yersin's experi- 

 ments, from which they also concluded that they had ob- 

 tained a substance similar in many respects both to a disastase 

 and to an enzyme. Hankin, working from the fact that a 

 poisonous albumose had been discovered in snake poison, 

 set about the task of isolating an albumose from anthrax 

 cultures. He made a cultivation of anthrax bacilli, then pre- 

 cipitated it by large quantities of absolute alcohol and washed 

 the precipitate thoroughly to dissolve out any ptomaines 

 that might be present ; this precipitate was filtered and 

 dried, then re-dissolved in water and the solution passed 

 through a Chamberland filter. This albumose is very 

 similar in its characters to the albumoses ordinarily described, 

 which really consist of albumen that has been altered by 

 hydration either by super-heating by steam under pressure, 

 or during the process of natural digestion, in which albumens 

 are converted stage by stage into peptones. These albu- 

 moses are intermediate non-coagulable hydrated .albumens. 

 Some forms are soluble in water, others are insoluble. That 

 described by Hankin as formed by the anthrax bacillus is a 

 soluble form. Brieger and Fraenkel obtained what were 

 apparently similar substances from pure cultivations of cholera 

 bacillus, typhoid bacillus, tetanus bacillus, from staphylo- 

 coccus aureus, and diphtheria bacillus, with all of which they 

 were able to produce toxic effects, some at least of which were 

 similar to those met with as the result of inoculation with 

 the bacteria themselves. These observers, however, did not 

 separate from the albumoses that were formed any enzymes 

 that might be present, consequently they were working 

 with a mixture of substances. The products that they 

 obtained gave most of the reactions of albumoses ; they were 

 cert^nly toxic, but they probably contained both enzymes 

 and albumoses. 



As these albumoses, described though not recognized under 

 that name by Wooldridge, are destined apparently to play a 

 most important part in the production of immunity against 

 disease, it may be well here to give a short description of the 

 methods adopted by Hankin to obtain his albumose from the 

 anthrax cultures, and by Brieger and Fraenkel and Babes from 

 cultures of other organisms (Sidney Martin has been able to 



