26 



Scientific Proceedings (117). 



heating at 56 0 C, berkefelding, and by adding various disinfectants, 

 phenol, gentian violet, etc. — and then allowed to incubate at 

 37° C. for 5-6 days, failed to show any toxin production. Some 

 experiments by Walbum 1 are interesting in this connection. 

 Walbum deduced the existence of what he called pro- toxin; he 

 injected a mixture of toxin plus peptone into a guinea pig in such 

 amount that the pig died in five days; the same amount of peptone 

 and toxin given separately to two other guinea pigs failed to kill. 

 The experiments hardly seem conclusive. The peptone might 

 conceivably injure the animal so that the toxin would kill more 

 easily. He tried no experiments with other reagents than peptone, 

 to check this point; and no experiments were undertaken to test 

 the specificity of any toxin which may have been formed by this 

 mixture. 



3. There may be some sort of autolytic disintegration of the 

 cells — so far there has been no evidence of this sort of mechanism. 

 Organisms at different stages of life activity — after growing 1-2-4- 

 6 days — were incubated at 37 0 C. for 6 days with saline and with 

 distilled water. The clear sterile liquid in these several cases 

 showed no toxin whatever. A possible objection to these ex- 

 periments is that the digestion was not carried on in a colloidal 

 substrate. 



Appropos of this were the attempts made to prevent growth 

 by planting a very large number of organisms, but these were 

 unsuccessful, for no matter how large a number of organisms was 

 planted there was always some growth. However, in every case 

 so far tried the broth planted with a very large number of organisms 

 showed less toxin than the same broth planted with a loopful. 

 In some cases the difference was very marked. This difference in 

 toxicity was apparently not due to absorption of the toxin by the 

 organism ; toxin allowed to stand in the ice chest with large numbers 

 of organisms at different stages of life activity did not show any 

 change in toxicity. 



4. During the period of cell division a substance may be pro- 

 duced which acting on the non-viable cells produces toxin. The 

 following results bear on this. After growing the organisms for less 

 than 24 hours the whole was sterilized, in some cases by heating to 



1 Walbum, Zeit. Immunilatsforschung, 1909 (3), originale. 



