ALBDMOSES OR TOX ALBUMENS. 279 



Pasteur-Chamberland filter, and then precipitating the 

 albumose from the filtrate by means of absolute alcohol. 

 This was purified by redissolving in water and repre- 

 cipitating with alcohol. This body is obtained as a snow- 

 like amorphous mass. It was found to be destroyed by a 

 temperature of 50° C 



Hankin has isolated a similar soluble albumose from 

 cultures of the anthrax bacillus. Eoux, Prankel, and 

 Brieger and others have obtained similar bodies from 

 cultures of the cholera, typhoid, and the tetanus bacilli, 

 and from the pus-forming organisms, the pneumo-bacilli, 

 etc. 



Frankel and Brieger divide these albumoses into two 

 groups, one of which is characterised by its ready solu- 

 bility in water, as in the case of that produced by the 

 diphtheria bacillus ; the other in which the albumose is 

 insoluble, or nearly so, as in the case of those from cultures 

 of the typhoid bacillus, the cholera spirillum and the 

 Staphylococcias pyogenes aureus. 



The toxalbumens from cholera cultures, when injected 

 under the skin of a guinea-pig, caused its death in two 

 days. It was not, however, toxic for rabbits, even when 

 injected in considerable quantity. On the contrary, the 

 toxalbumen from typhoid cultures was more poisonous for 

 rabbits than for guinea-pigs. The toxalbumen from the 

 Staph, pyogenes aureus killed both rabbits and guinea-pigs 

 within a few days — in some cases at the end of twenty- 

 four hours. The post-mortem appearances showed necrosis 

 or purulent breaking- down of the tissues at the point 

 of injection, with swelling and general inflammatory appear- 

 ances. 



Sidney Martin has very recently found, as the result of 

 a prolonged investigation, that the albumoses in the case of 

 diphtheria and anthrax are mixtures ; and he has succeeded 



