Demonstration of Tryptic Digestion. 137 



especially — one on the eyebrow of a rabbit infected by the intra- 

 venous inoculation of syphilitic blood and the other deriving from 

 the condyloma on the vagina of a rabbit infected by coitus from a 

 male rabbit having specific lesion on the prepuce. The bacterial 

 contamination in each case was so abundant, that numerous 

 attempts at purification using original Noguchi method failed 

 for months. Having noticed earlier 1 that certain antiseptics in 

 proper quantities exert a marked accelerating action upon the 

 growth of spirochetes, I prepared media containing salvarsanin very 

 small amounts and finally after 10 passages succeeded in isolating 

 both strains of spirochetes, which apparently have remained pure for 

 the last five months. In another series of experiments I tried to 

 make use of the fact that anilin dyes, which exert marked sterilizing 

 action on bacteria even in dilutions of 1 : 5,000 and 1 : 10,000, seem 

 not to inhibit the growth of certain spirochetes in much greater 

 concentrations. 2 The experiments in this direction are still not 

 completed, as so far it was impossible to find a dye which would 

 uniformly inhibit the growth of all the bacteria occurring in 

 contaminated syphilitic material in a concentration which would 

 allow the life of all the different strains of spirochetes. 



83 (1015) 



The demonstration of tryptic digestion by an activated serum. 



By J. Bronfenbrenner and K. M. Scott. 



[From the Pathological and Research Laboratories of the Western 

 Pennsylvania Hospital, Pittsburgh, Pa.] 



In the earlier publications it was shown, that the placenta in 

 the Abderhalden reaction is not digested. 3 It was assumed then 

 that the dialyzable split products of protein appearing during the 

 test originate from the serum as the result of its autodigestion. 4 

 It was shown also that although the normal serum shows no 

 digestive power, such tryptic activity may be demonstrated in 



1 Journal of Pharmacology and Exp. Therap., 1913, Vol. IV, p. 333. 



2 Ibidem. 



3 J. Bronfenbrenner, J. of Exp. Med., 1915, Vol. XXI. 



1 J. Bronfenbrenner, Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol, and Med., 1914. Vol. XII, p. 7. 



