534 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
powerful disinfectant. (2) The bactericidal effect of drying is to be 
ascribed to the withdrawal of water from the media holding the bacteria. 
(3) The quicker and more perfect the removal of water, the quicker and 
more perfect the disinfection. (4) The different results of drying are 
dependent partly on the species of bacteria, and partly on the kind of 
drying. (5) Sunlight kills even the most resistant micro-organisms, 
Germicidal, Globulicidal, and Antitoxic Action of Blood-serum.* — 
The power of cell-free serum of annihilating bacteria (germicidal), de- 
stroying red corpuscles of other animals, and of killing leucocytes 
(globulicidal) is well known, but any satisfactory explanation of this 
property has not yet been put forward. In discussing this ques- 
tion, Herr H. Buchner shows how the globulin of serum and the 
albumin can be separated by means of C0 2 , water, and very dilute H 2 S0 4 , 
both bodies retaining the property alluded to. They may, however, 
be removed from blood-serum by heating it up to 55° and by diluting 
with distilled water, but are retained in presence of physiological salt 
solution, and even restored by adding 0*7 per cent, of NaCl to serum 
which has been diluted with water. 
The loss of vital property in animal cells resulting from the addition 
of distilled water, is usually ascribed to osmotic processes, but for a 
cell-free fluid this explanation is not feasible. On the contrary it must 
be admitted that the dilution does not alter the chemical composition, 
but effects some change in the peculiar arrangement of the molecules in 
proteid bodies. Analogous examples are frequent enough in the 
chemistry of the organic carbon compounds and enzymes. Thus 
trypsin, after having been heated for an hour up to 60°, loses its power 
of dissolving albumen, while its chemical composition is unaltered. 
But the question at issue is not one of mere chemical but of physio- 
logical action, and therefore all the more difficult, since it deals not with 
simple substances, but complex structures, and with their action on bodies 
of equally complex composition. The examination is conducted in fact, 
not with chemical reagents but with living cells, leucocytes, red 
corpuscles, and bacteria. In general terms the effect of serum albumen 
is injurious to alien cells, and varies not only in degree, but in the time 
it takes to come into operation. 
The author then proceeds to the antitoxic action of serum, the 
proteids of which not only destroy cells, but also tlieir metabolic products, 
the toxines and toxalbumens. 
Effect of Sublimate on Anthrax Spores.! — Herr Geppert found 
that if anthrax spores were soaked in 1 per thousand sublimate solution 
for 20 hours, the results from inoculation varied according as the 
sublimate had at the end of disinfection been precipitated or not by 
weak solution of ammonium sulphate. After a comparatively short 
disinfection period, all the spores seemed to have lost their power of 
germinating ; but from this apparently dead condition they were 
awakened by precipitation. Yet the results were curious ; for in the first 
* Munchen. Med. Woclienschr., 1892, No. 8. See Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u, 
Parasitenk., xi. (1892) pp. 486-8. 
t Deutsche Med. Wochenschr., xvii. No. 37. See Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. 
Parasitenk., xi. (1892) p. 485. 
