1887.] 



Note on Protection in Anthrax. 



313 



regards the general nature of protection in this and other diseases 

 depending on micro-organisms. 



I nse as a culture fluid for the anthrax bacillus a solution of a 

 proteid body which is obtained from the testis and from the thymus 

 gland. I have described this substance to the Society on a previous 

 occasion,* so tha.t I need not repeat the description of the process 

 used in its preparation. 



The proteid substance is dissolved in dilate alkali and the solution 

 sterilised by repeated boiling. It is then inoculated with anthrax 

 and maintained at 37° C. for two or three days. 



The growth is generally not very abundant, and at the end of the 

 period mentioned is removed from the culture fluid by filtration. A 

 small quantity of the filtered culture fluid is injected into the circula- 

 tion of a rabbit, and it is then found that the animal will not take 

 anthrax. 



A subcutaneous inoculation of extremely virulent anthrax blood 

 made at the time of the injection of the protecting fluid, and two sub- 

 sequent inoculations at intervals of five and ten days, remain entirely 

 without effect. The animals used as a control invariably die. Four 

 rabbits have been protected in this way. 



If the anthrax grown in the fluid be inoculated it either kills or it 

 has no effect. It does not protect in the slightest degree. 



The injection of the culture fluid in which no anthrax has grown is 

 without effect. The animals die as usual when inoculated. The 

 injection of the fluid itself causes no ill symptoms whether anthrax 

 has grown in it or not. 



If other albuminous fluids, e.g., blood-serum, be used as a culture 

 medium and the filtered culture fluid be injected, it exerts no pro- 

 tection. It may be fairly concluded that the growth of the anthrax 

 bacillus in the special culture fluids used in these experiments gives 

 rise to a substance which when injected into' the organism protects 

 against an immediate and subsequent attacks of anthrax. 



It*would obviously be of very great advantage if some such method 

 as this could be used for the zymotic diseases affecting man for which 

 no protective inoculation in the ordinary sense, appears possible. 



I am indebted to the Medical Officer to the Local Government Board 

 for permission to publish this short account of these experiments, 

 the full description of which will appear in his report. I must also 

 express my thanks to Dr. Klein, F.R.S., for kindly supplying me 

 with many anthrax cultivations. 



* L. C. Wooldridge, " Intravascular Clotting," ' Roy. Soc. Proc.,' 1886. 



