150 PTOMAINES AND TOXALBUMINS, 
tremely toxic in its action upon small animals. When injected into 
guinea-pigs in the proportion of two and one-half milligrammes to 
one kilogramme of body weight, it caused death after a considerable 
interval of time (from afew days to several weekx), during which 
the animal became emaciated and spreading abscesses and necrosis 
of the tissues occurred at the point of injection. This toxalbumin 
was obtained in a pure state by repeated precipitation from an aque- 
ous solution by means of alcohol. It is produced most abundantly 
in cultures containing albumin, and old cultures are more toxic than 
recent ones. Chemical analysis gave the following result: C 45.35, 
H 7.13, N 16.33, S$ 1.39, O 29.80. The authors remark, however, 
that the chemical characters have not yet been fully determined. 
The same chemists have obtained toxic substances of a similar 
nature from cultures of the bacillus of typhoid fever, of the tetanus 
bacillus, of the Staphylococcus aureus, and of the cholera spirillum. 
Hankin had previously obtained a toxic ‘“‘albumose” from cultures 
of the anthrax bacillus by precipitation with alcohol, drying, solu- 
tion in water, and filtration through porcelain; and Christmas had 
obtained an albuminous substance from cultures of Staphylococcus 
aureus which produced pus formation when injected beneath the 
skin of rabbits or into the anterior chamber of the eye. 
According to Brieger and Frankel, these toxalbumins are divided 
into two principal groups, one of which is characterized by solubility 
in water, as in that produced by the diphtheria bacillus ; and one in 
which the albumin is insoluble or but slightly soluble, as is the case 
with those obtained from cultures of the typhoid bacillus, the cholera 
spirillum, and the Staphylococcus aureus. 
The toxalbumin from cholera cultures, obtained as pure as pos- 
sible and suspended in water, when injected under the skin of a 
guinea-pig, caused its death in two or three days. It was not, how- 
ever, toxic for rabbits, even when injected in considerable quantity. 
On the contrary, the toxalbumin of the typhoid bacillus, which is 
dissolved with difficulty in water, was more poisonous for rabbits 
than for guinea-pigs. When injected subcutaneously into rabbits 
death usually occurred in eight to ten days. No notable pathologi- 
cal changes were observed at the autopsy. 
The toxalbumin of Staphylococcus aureus killed rabbits and 
guinea-pigs within a few days, and in some cases at the end of 
twenty-four hours. The post-mortem appearances were necrosis or 
purulent breaking down of the tissues at the point of injection, with 
swelling and redness of the surrounding tissues and general inflam- 
matory appearances. The toxalbumin of anthrax cultures resembles 
that of the diphtheria bacillus in being soluble in water. It was 
obtained by Brieger from the organs of animals recently dead from 
