414 BACTERIOLOGY. 



it possessed curative powers when the disease is already 

 in progress. The serum of immuuified animals, when 

 injected into the circulation of animals in which this 

 form of infection was in progress, and in which there 

 was a body-temperature of from 40.4° to 41° C, reduced 

 this temperature to normal (37.5° C.) in twelve con- 

 secutive experiments during the first twenty-four hours 

 following its employment. 



In their opinion, the crisis, seen in pneumonia 

 in human beings, indicates the moment at which the 

 poisonous products, manufactured by the bacteria located 

 in the lungs, are present in the circulation in amounts 

 sufficient to call forth in the tissues the reactive change 

 that results in the production of the antidotal substance 

 that has the power of rendering the poisons inert. 



At the time of the crisis in pneumonia the bacteria 

 themselves are in no way affected. They remain in 

 the lungs, and can be detected, in full vigor and viru- 

 lence, in the sputum of patients a long time after the 

 disease is cured. They have lost none of their power 

 of producing poisonous products, and still possess their 

 original pathogenic relations toward susceptible animals. 

 It is only after the crisis that their poisons are neutral- 

 ized by this antidotal proteid that has been eliminated 

 by the cells of the tissues, and as this occurs the sys- 

 temic manifestations gradually disappear. The Klem- 

 perers claim to have isolated from cultures of the micro- 

 coccus lanceolatus a proteid body that is the agent con- 

 cerned in producing the tissue reaction which results in 

 the formation of the protecting substance. They likewise 

 isolated from the serum of immuuified animals a pro- 

 teid that possesses the same powers as the serum itself 

 — viz., of affording immunitj'^ and curing the disease. 



