i8 TOXINS AND ANTITOXINS. 



mette * on the modifications undergone by a 

 vegetable toxalbumin, abrin, and by serpent 

 venoms, when these toxalbumins are inoculated 

 with the bacillus subtilis chromogenus. Moreover, 

 Charrin and Lefevre.f on the one hand, and 

 Nencki, Sieber and Somanowsky,t and Carriere,§ 

 on the other hand, have discovered that the diges- 

 tive ferments, particularly trypsin, destroy, even 

 though but little, the toxins secreted by the Loeffler 

 and Nicolaier bacilli. This is practically contrary 

 to the opinion of Behring and of Rauson,I| according 

 to which the innocuousness of the microbial poisons 

 when administered per os is due exclusively to the 

 lack of absorption. 



Nature of the Toxins. — The molecules of the toxins 

 are very nearly like those of the diastases. Like 

 these, the toxins appear to have a very complex, 

 and very unstable, internal structure. Their mode 

 of action frequently depends, as in the case of the 

 diastases, upon the medium in which they occur. 

 Again, like the diastases, they are generally de- 

 stroyed by the action of sufficiently prolonged heat, 

 but less easily, for there are certain toxins that 

 resist a temperature of ioo° C. for an indefinite 

 period. They are, like the diastatic albuminoids, 



* Citing Metchnikoff. 



t C. rend, de la Soc. de Biologie, 1898. 



% Centralblatt fur Bakt., i8g8. 



I C. rend, de la Soc. de Biologie, 1899. 



\^ Deutsche Med. Wochenschr., 1898, No. 8. 



