The Agglutinins 127 



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

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

 experiments, to conclude that agglutination depended upon the 

 flagella. Malvozf 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 J^ c.c of distilled water, and then added a loopful of a 

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

 tinations were observed under the microscope. 



H. C. Ernst and RobeyJ 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,§ Joos,|| Eisenberg and VoU** have shown that all of the 

 agglutinins possess haptophore and agglutinophore groups, either 

 of which may be destroyed without the other. Thus typhoid 

 agglutinative serum when exposed to a temperature of 65°C. loses 

 the agglutinophores, and no longer clumps the bacteria, though 

 it retains the haptophores, and when brought into contact with the 

 bacteria combines with them, producing no agglutination, but pre- 

 venting the action of unheated agglutinogenic serum. 



Buxton and Vaughanft found that bacteria differ both in theii 

 agglutinogenic powers and their agglutinabihty, both of which must 

 be taken into account in studying the subject. 



Theobald Smith || has shown that there are two kinds of agglutinins, 

 one of which acts upon the bacteria directly, the other through the 

 flagella. The occurrence of these two bodies explains some of the 

 incompatible results of previous experiments. 



The reaction is one of the most delicate known to us for the 

 identification of bacteria. It is so specific that, in the case of many 

 organisms, it is even possible to tell from what original source they 

 may have come, and always to tell to what variety they belong. 

 It is, moreover, a comparatively simple method that can be used by 

 physicians with little technical skill. The various serums necessary 

 can be obtained from the large pubHc and commercial laboratories 

 where animals immunized against various cultures can always be 

 kept on hand and periodically bled. The serums, sealed in small 

 tubes, can be kept an almost unlimited length of time and shipped 

 to any distance ready for use when opened and diluted. 



There is no uniform technic by which to apply the test. Scarcely 

 any two laboratories employ the same method, but the results are 



* "Bull, de I'Acad. de Med. de Belgique," 1898, iv, p. 705. 



t "Ann. de I'Inst. Pasteur," Aug. 25, 1899. 



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



§ "Archiv f. Hyg.," 1902, XLii, Heft 4. 



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

 ** Ibid., 1902, xL,'p. 155. 

 tt "Jour. Med. Research," July, 1904. 

 It Ibid., 1904, vol. X, p. 89. 



