THEORIES AND EXPERIMENTS IN ANTISEPSIS. 
553 
The addition of bichromate of potassium, to bouillon con¬ 
taining the bacteria of anthrax (Charbon), prevents the forma¬ 
tion of spores, and these asporogenous bacilli, thus deprived of 
their essential characters, lose at the same time, all resistance 
to causes of destruction (Chamberland and Roux). Again, 
when an antiseptic neither modifies the vitality, nor the evolu¬ 
tion, nor the morphological type of a micro-organism, it may 
prevent the elaboration of its habitual secretions. The chromo- 
genie bacilli are good illustrations, for it is not difficult to sup¬ 
press their colored secretions by using the proper antiseptics. 
The bacillus pyocyaneus, appropriately named on account 
of its secreting a blue coloring material which tinges pus and 
the media in which it grows, is killed by a solution of sublimate 
i.i-ioo or in contact with carbolic acid 14-100 ; but weaker 
solutions of these substances, sublimate 0.85-100 or carbolic 
acid 9-100 do not have a destructive action, but can prevent the 
secretion of their coloring material (Wass.erzug). 
In contact with caffeine, theobromine, or eserine, the same 
micro-organism loses its chromogenic function. It is only 
modified, for when quinine or quinidine is used the product 
secreted is yellow instead of blue (Cadiac). 
Under the second heading, or action upon toxins, Guinard 
states that an agent deserves the name of an antiseptic, although 
it may have no action upon the micro-organisms nor their sec¬ 
retory functions, if it has the power of chemically neutralizing 
the bacterial poisons, the action is practically an antidotal one 
between the toxin and antiseptic. It is Guinard’s view that the 
efficacy of the different antitoxin serums is explained in this 
way. 
With regard to the third method, we encounter a more indi¬ 
rect action than in either of the others. The antiseptic has no 
immediate action upon the micro-organism nor its functions, 
nor its products of secretion, but modifies the medium in which 
it grows in such a way that its evolution and its vitality are 
attenuated. A great number of agents belonging to the group 
of disinfectants, have the power of coagulating albumin and 
