70 MICROBES AND TOXINS 



primitive autogamy the Schaudinn school considers autogamy 

 in general as a regressive type. 



The truth is that sexual differentiation of the gametes is 

 universal in nature even in the lower orders. Researches on 

 the Protista permit the recognition of sexual dimorphism in 

 every nucleus, i.e., there is in every nucleus a double substance 

 and a double function, one specially nutritive, the female, the 

 other specially reproductive, the male. Every protozoon cell 

 is, to some extent, hermaphrbditCj but with one or other 

 element predominating. Even in autogamy, the elements 

 which fuse are differentiated. 



Sex is thus universal in nature, and it is from this point of 

 view that Schaudinn had to consider the rudimentary con- 

 jugation of B. Biitschlii as a degenerate type. As with the 

 structure of the nucleus, the fact of autogamy indicates again 

 that bacteria belong to an order degraded by the parasitic 

 habit. 



Chemical Composition. — The chemical composition 

 varies with the species studied, and in the same species with 

 the age and the nutriment. Duclaux observed in the cells of 

 a fifteen-year-old yeast that the proportion of fatty material, 

 instead of being 5 per cent, as in young yeasts, had risen to 

 20-30 or even 52 per cent., the proportion of nitrogen varying 

 from I to 4. 



Bacterial substances contain proteids, fats, and sugars, but 

 as there are so many proteids and so many sugars, the figures 

 can only give a general indication. The cell is a " well stocked 

 laboratory," and one which is always in activity. 



The organic materials isolated from bacterial bodies of very 

 diverse species are the following : — 



Coagulable albumins in the expressed juices ; globulins ; a protamine (from 

 B. tuberculosis) ; proteoses (by peptic digestion). 



Glycoproteids. Phosphoproteids and their derivatives : nucleins, nucleic 

 acids, xanthin bases, and pyridin bases. 



A substance resembling chitin or keratin (B. tuberculosis). 



Products of hydrolysis of proteins : amino-acids and hexone bases. 



Carbohydrates : Cellulose, hemicellulose, and sugars. 



Fats and waxes, neutral fats (capsulated bacteria, B. diphtheria, B. tuber- 

 culosis). Free fatty acids (B. tuberculosis) ; waxes (B. tub.) ; lecithin 



