316 



Mr. A. Fleming. On a Remarkable 



The second group consisted of a series of cultures of bacilli which are 

 pathogenic for some animals, but not, so far as is known, for man. These 

 were kindly supplied by Dr. St. John Brooks from the National Collection. 

 They were tested with tears (1 in 100) and nasal mucus (1 in 100), in 

 addition to the sputum extract, and seven out of eight cultures showed 

 some lysis after incubation with one or other of these fluids. These 

 cultures included B. abortus of Bang, and B. pseudotuberculosis rodentium, 

 to both of which there was some lytic power and which will be referred 

 to later. 



The third group consisted of bacteria which had been isolated from the 

 human body, and it was found that, whereas most of these were not acted on 

 by the lysozyme contained in sputum or tears, some were completely, and 

 others partially dissolved. Not one of the various members of the coli 

 typhoid group showed the slightest signs of lysis, while sixteen out 

 of nineteen strains of intestinal streptococci were dissolved to a greater or 

 less extent. 



The results obtained with this group of microbes are set forth in Table III, 

 but of necessity, considering the multiplicity of strains involved, this Table 

 is incomplete, and it may well be that by altering the conditions of the 

 experiment somewhat, a much higher percentage of the bacteria will be 

 dissolved. 



Table III. — Effect of the Lysozyme contained in Sputum or Tears on 

 Bacteria isolated from the Human Body, 



Type of microbe. 



Number tested. 



Number showing 

 some lysis. 



Number showing 

 no lysis. 





22 



16 



6 





4 



2 



2 





12 







12 





1 







1 





» 2U 1 







2 





2 







2 





3 







3 





1 • 







1 





1 







1 





3 







3 





2 







2 



It was noticed that with different microbes, different fluids in their 

 lysozyme-content did not always bear the same ratio to one another. Thus, 

 while tears were apparently the most powerfully lytic to the M. lysodeikticus, 

 they had a less powerful lytic effect on some other cocci than had 

 sputum or synovial fluid. This may be the explanation of the immunity of 



