UMASS/AMHERST # V:^7^ 31EDbtiDDS177tiD3 fe"^^^^^^ i*a S3) SO jj'^y .>^4. Tm> LIBRARY OF THE MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE uK No.Ll-S__4 SOURCEvl..]'. ■?4i This book may be kept out TWO WEEKS only, and is subject to a fine of TWO CENTS a clay thereafter. It will be due on the day indicated below. 0CT54 1904 f3 WA^c, '^ >: 'i' t' THE NEW YORK MEDICAL JOURNAL, JUNE 20, 1891. ILLUSTEATING THE AETICLE BY DE. PEUDDEN AND DE. HODENPYL. 0^ Fig. 1. — Nodule in rabbit's lung, ten days after intravenous injection of dead tubercle bacilli. Steamed three hours Fig. 2. — Nodule in rabbit's lung, twenty-eight days after intravenous injection of dead tubercle bacilli. Cult- ure steamed two hours. /:/ i o @ \ V ej hC f L- t- ^ *s) r & o / Fig. 3.— New-formed cells in capillaries ot the rabbit's liver, seventeen days after intravenous injection of dead tubercle bacilli. Culture steamed four hours. ■-^,-^-5*i? ^ - C35^?fe' :^;,, Fig. 4. — Diffuse cell-proliferation in vessels of rabbit's liver, twenty-five days after intra- venous injection of dead tubercle bacilli. Culture steamed an hour and a half. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from Boston Library Consortium IVIember Libraries http://www.archive.org/details/studiesonactionoOOprud THE NEW YORK MEDICAL JOURNAL, JUNE 20, 1891. 'K''- .".■f** Fig. 0. — Small ^circumsoribed epithelioid cell-mass in I'ahbit's livei-, surrouiided by zone of small spberoidal cells, twenty-five days after intravenous injection of dead tubercle bacilli. Culture boiled an hour and a half. Fig. 5. — Small circumscribed area of cell-proliferation in vessels of rabbit's liver. Same animal as in Fig. i. Fir 8 — Small Iner nodule composed of epithelioid cells. Same animal as m Figs. 6 and 9. Fig. 7. — Small nodule in rabbit's liver consis^ting ot a mass of epithelioid cells, forty-eight days after intravenous injec tion of dead tubercle bacilli. Culture steamed thiee hour'. — ~1 1. 5_ t, 4, -- — ^ -?r ■i V-" ./J-. w > Fig. 9. — Kodule in liver composed of epithelioid and giant cells. Same animal as in Figs. 7 and 8. Fig, 10. — Complex nodule in rabbit's liver, consisting of a congeries of epitheli- oid and giant cell masses, thirty-five days after intravenous injection of dead, tubercle bacilli. Culture steamed two hours. Very few bacilli are remaining STUDIES OH" THE ACTION OF DEAD BACTERIA IN THE LIYING BODY BY T. MITCHELL PRUDDEX, M. D. DIRECTOR AND EUGENE HODENPYL, M. D. FIRST ASSISTANT IN PATHOLOGY IN THE LABORATORY OF THE AXUMNI ASSOCIATION OF THE COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS, NEW YORK First Papee. — Introductory Second Paper. — A Study of the Tubercle Bacillus REPEINTED FROM THE NEW YORK MEDICAL JOURNAL FOR JUNE 6 AND 20, 1891 NEW YORK D. APPLE TON AND COMPANY 1891 Copyright, 1891, By D. APPLETON AND COMPATSIY. STUDIES ON THE ACTION OF DEAD BACTEKIA IN THE LIYING BODY. FiEST Article. — Inteodtjctoey. The researches of the past decade, bringing to light, one after another, the specidc micro-organisms of some of the most common and fatal diseases, have been so surprising, so definite, so fall of the promise of fruitful outlooks upon hitherto untrodden fields, that we have scarcely yet had time to recover from the glamour of the new light or to realize, in the urgency of fresh practical problems, the exact extent and bearings of the new knowledge. For a time it seemed enough, and even more than enough, that montli by month the proof grew stronger that anthrax and tuberculosis and typhoid and erysipelas and pneumonia and tetanus and diphtheria, and a whole group of allied " wound diseases " and others of the so-called " in- fections" class, were always associated with certain germs, each peculiar in its life history, and each standing, as we say, in an setiological relationship to its particular disease. But as we have little by little become accustomed to the new light, it has become evident not only that we are still ignorant about the relationship of micro-organisms to sev- eral extremely frequent and important infectious diseases — the exanthemata, for example — but also that when we have learned that a given acute infectious disease is always asso- ciated wiih a particular form of germ, when the life history of that germ is made out, and we can say that it stands in an setiological relationship to the disease, there yet remains a series of accessory problems to be solved in each particu- 4 THE ACTION OF DEAD BACTERIA. lar case scarcely less important than the establishinont of the invariable association of the germ with the disease. We are just beginning fairly to realize that the disease is not an entity, a thing imparted by the invading germ to the body, but that it is the result of the reaction of the body cells in the presence of the germs ; that the body-cell factor is just as important and just as much in need of studv as is the germ-cell factor. We have been largely for- getful hitherto, as with painful detail the characters and preferences and metabolisms and vulnerabilities of the pathogenic germs have one by one been brought to light, that before our knowledge of the acute infectious diseases can be at all complete, the characters and preferences and metabolisms and vulnerabilities of the body cells must be subjected to an equally careful scrutiny. The germ side of the problem is new and fascinating; the man side is old, and cellular pathology is a phrase familiar to our ears. But these old problems have become fairly new in their new light, and can not too soon be taken up afresh if our knowl- edge of the acute infectious diseases is to be symmetrical and of lasting use. Partly by clinical observation and partly by laboratory studies is the new knowledge of the man side of this theme to be acquired, and old clinical observations, which have lain uninterpreted or misinterpreted, and new facts which the new points of view can not fail to elicit, will surely be fast forthcoming. But, returning to the bacterial side of the problem, it became evident, very soon after the definite status of patho- genic germs was made out, that something more than their mere presence was necessary to account for the manifesta- tions of the acute infectious diseases. The earlj discovery that certain pathogenic germs set free poisonous substances of one kind or another as the result of their life processes, and the evidence that these substances were directly accountable for many of the mani- festations of the acute infectious diseases, drew attention to the complexity of the problems involved, called in the serv- ices of the physiological chemists, and for a time it seemed, and still does to many, th;it, after all, it was the poisons which the bacteria elaborated and sent out into the body THE ACTION OF DEAD BACTERIA. 5 on their destructive missions which was the most important thing. "Ptomaines" became a favorite word. When we had said that a given germ produced a given disease or ef- fect by the elaboration of a given ptomaine, it seemed to many fairly utireasonable to ask for any further explanation of the acute infections diseases. The germs were relegated to the more humble function of poison-factories, and the ptomaines were invested with the insignia of malevolent power. The pendulum seems disposed to swing back germ- ward now, and in this paper, which is preliminary to the record of some experimental studies made by Dr. Iloden- pyl and the writer, an(i shortly to follow, on the tubercle bacillus, it is my purpose briefly to review a series of recent studies on the germ-cell bodies which throw a curiously in- teresting new light on some old boilycell problems. A very curious vital phenomenon which has long been known in certain unicellular organisms — such as the fresh- water amoiba and in the leucocytes of both the cold and warm-blooded animals — is their response by movement to contact with solid substances. Thus the amoeba floating free in fluids tends to assume a spheroidal form and to re- main immobile. When, however, under suitable conditions, it touches a solid surface, like that of a glass slide, it sends out pseudopodia and performs those curious progressive evolutions known as the amoeboid movement. Essentially, the same series of movements is observed in leucocytes when they, under favorable conditions, come in contact with solid surfaces — such as a glass slide or the walls of the body lymph spaces. This faculty in these primitive forms of life, consisting of a simple lump of protoplasm, is called tactile sensibility, and it is in virtue of this that many of the remarkable and useful evolutions of the leucocytes in the body transpire. It was found by Pfeflfer (1), a good while ago, that some of the lowly vegetable organisms endowed with locomotion — the Flagellata, Bacteria, etc. — were capable of moving toward or away from certain substances which exerted a chemical action upon them. This property he designated as chemotaxis, and further postulated &% positive chemotaxis the attracting effect, and as negative chemotaxis the repel- ling effect on such organisms of the chemical substances. 6 THE ACTION OF DEAD BACTERIA. Pfeffer has shown that mobile bacteria move toward nu- trient substances, such as beef-tea, and Engelmann and others (2) have demonstrated their movement toward oxy- gen, both effects being apparently due to the positive chemo- tactic action of tliese substances. Stahl (3) showed that similar properties exist in the plasmodia of myxomycetes. This movement has been proved to be due, not to currents in the fluids, not to diffusion, but to the specific action of the particular chemical substances in question on living or- ganisms. Tbe chemotactic powers of the juice of raw potatoes, which contains, as Pfeffer showed, potash salts and aspara- gin, has been used in capillary tubes by Ali Cohen (4) to separate mobile from immobile bacteria in mixtures. In this way he found that be could separate cholera and ty- phoid bacilli from the numerous other forms in fjeces, and thus make easier the obtaining of pure cultures for diagnos- tic purposes. Now, the same condition of affairs exists in the leucocytes of both the cold-blooded and warm-blooded animals, and the conditions and bearings in them of this positive and negative chemotaxis wore studied in detail by Massart and Bordet(5) and by Gabritchev&ki (6) in 1890. Tbe latter observer has grouped as the result of his experiments cer- tain chemical substances in accordance with their action in this way upon leucocytes. Tlius, inthe group of substances exciting a neixative — repelling — chemotaxis, we have con- centrated salt sohition, 10 per cent. ; lactic acid ; quinine, 0*5 percent.; alcohol, 10 percent. ; chloroform; jetpiirity ; glycerin ; bile. Substances having no effect — indifferent chemotaxis — are distilled vpater; dilute salt solution, 0*1 to 1 percent.; carbolic acid, 1-per-cent. solution; antipy- rine ; glycogen ; peptone ; beef-tea ; blood ; aqueous hu- mor. Among the most prominent substances exciting a positive chemotaxis are especially sterilized and non-ster- ilized cultures of various pathogenic and non-pathogenic bacteria. The general method of testing the powers of these vari- ous substances is to fill small capillary glass tubes, closed at one end, with the substance to be tested, and to thrust these beneath the skin of an animal. After a few hours THE ACTION OF DEAD BACTERIA. 7 these tubes are withdrawn and their contents examined. Into tubes filled with substances inciting' positive chemo- taxis the leucocytes crowd in great numbers, while they are held away from tubes having negative chemotactic contents, and when filled with indifferent substances there is no ef- fect at all. While the tactile sensibility of leucocytes may cause them to cluster in small numbers about the surface of the glass tubes, the effect of this property in the leucocytes is altogether insignificant as compared with the chemical substance exciting positive cheraotaxis. It appears, then, that there are certain substances asso- ciated with bacteria wliich excite in the leucocytes a move- ment toward the germs. The culture medium itself has no such effect, but the action is developed equally whether the cultures be living or have been killed by boiling. It would thus appear that either the bacteria themselves or some result of their life and growth must be the exciting agency. Under the dominant views regarding the significance of the various chemical substances set free by bacteria as the) grow, it has been assumed that it was largely under the ex citing influence of the ptomaines that leucocytes exhibited the phenomena of chemotaxis in the presence of bacteria, A practical bearing was given to the subject, under the in- fluence of this view, by the assumption that in the process of suppuration, as commonly induced by various species of bacteria, the leucocytes gathering at the inflammatory foci were drawn thither in virtue of their chemotactic properties which the metabolic bacterial poisons brought into play. To this view the doctrine of phagocytosis, as held by Metsch- nikoff and his adherents, readily attached itself, and we had a well-rounded hypothesis, in accordance with which the leucocytes, drawn, in virtue of their chemotaxis, into the vi- cinity of invading bacteria, at once set to work to destroy them, and with them the poison sources which were stimu- lating excessive cell inroads. But while these observations were going on, an allied but quite independent series of experiments was being car- ried out by Buchner and his associates in Munich, which have thrown a new and apparently most significant light upon both the phenomena of chemotaxis and the nature 8 THE ACTION OF DEAD BACTERIA. of snppnratioTi. To these experiments let us then briefly turn. While it is fully established that a true suppurative in- flammation may be experimentally induced by a variety of inorganic substances, it is still true that the suppurative processes which occur in the body, either as independent lesions or as complications of a variety of diseases, are prac- tically always due to the action of bacteria. So that in a clinical sense the summary statement, " no suppuration with- out bacteria," is true. While, as above indicated, it has been the general belief of late that the metabolic products of bacterial life, the "ptomaines" or the "toxines," were the active agents in inducing suppuration, this, save in a few instances, has not been proved. Biichner (V), in the course of some experiments on the introduction of anthrax spores and anthrax bacilli into the trachea of rabbits and guinea-pigs, had observed some time ago that while the introduction of the bacilli was followed by an intense inflammatory reaction of the lung tissue, with accumulation of leucocytes, fibrin, etc., in the air spaces, the introduction of the spores alone was followed by no such marked inflammatory reaction, but that the spores entered the blood channels and induced, in due time, the usual sys- temic effects of anthrax poisoning. There is one factor — so reasoned Buchner — which has not been taten definitely into the account in the causation of suppurative inflammation by bacteria, and that is the possibility that the effect may be produced, not by the ptomaines, not by the toxines already so much studied, but by the albuminoid constituents of the bacterial cells them- selves. If this were true, then the inteuse exudative inflam- mation in the lungs following the introduction of the an- thrax bacilli might be explained by the local disintegratiun of the bacilli and the setting free of their potent proteid constituents, while no such effect would follow the intro- duction of spores. It has been repeatedly shown by numerous observers (8) that sterilized cultures of various pyogenic bacteria — such as Staphylococcus pyogenes aureus, Bacillus pyocyaneus, etc. — were as capable of producing suppuration as were the fresh living cultures. But it was believed that this was due to THE ACTION OF DEAD BACTERIA. 9 the retention of a toxic substance furnished by the life pro- cesses of the ^erm which had not been destroyed by the sterilization, but clung" about the dead gern3 bodies. Al- though Wyosokowitsch had filtered off the fluid from steril- ized anthrax cultures and found that the filtrate was not pyogenic, while the solid material was, he inferred only that the toxic material assumed to cause suppuration was not soluble in the nutrient fluid. Buchner had also shown (9), in the course of some other experiments, that the sterilized emulsion of the so-called pneumo-bacillus of Friedlander, subcutaneously injected, could cause suppuration in rabbits and guinea-pigs. He found further that if such a sterilized emulsion were allowed to stand for some time, so that the solid could be separated from the fluid parts of the mass, the fluid part did not cause suppuration, while the solid part did. That the effect of such sterilized bacterial emulsions was not due to their me- chanical effects in the tissues was shown by such control experiments as the introduction of powdered charcoal, in- fusorial earth, magnesia, potato emulsion, etc., beneath the skin, with negative results. By a series of manipulations similar to that practiced with the pneumo-bacillus, Buchner now tested the effect of sterilized emulsions of cultures of seventeen different species of bacteria, among which may be mentioned Staph ijlococcus pyogenes aureus, Staphylococcus cerens flavus, Sarcina au- rantiaca, Bacillus prodigiosus. Bacillus fitzianus. Bacillus cyanogenus, Bacillus megatherium. Bacillus suhtilis, Bacillus coli cominunis, Bacillus acidi lactici, Bacillus anthracis, Pro- teus vulgaris, Finkler's comma bacillus, etc. The injection of one cubic centimetre of the sterilized emulsions of each of these germs resulted within two to three days in an aseptic — that is, bacteria-free — purulent infiltration in the subcutaneous tissue at the seat of injection. On the other hand, the clear fluid obtained by sedimentation from the sterilized emulsions of Bacillus cyanogenus. Bacillus mega- therium, and Bacillus anthracis, induced no suppuration, while the separated sediment invariably did. While it thus seemed probable that the albuminous ma- terial of the bacterial cell was at least chiefly concerned in inducing suppuration on the injection of sterilized emul- 10 THE ACTIOK OF DEAD BACTEHIA. sions, this was not yet fairly proved. Buchner now sought to strengthen the evidence by a very ingenious experiment. The modern technique of staining bacteria with the aniline dyes depends, as is well known, upon the power of these dyes to enter into chemical combination with the bacterial cell plasma. Acting upon this principle, Buchner found that if he added to a sterilized emulsion of the pneumo- bacillus, which was strongly pyogenic, an aqueous solution of methvl violet, the emulsion was wholly bereft of its pyo- genic powers. Anent of this interesting bit of evidence of the importance of the bacterial cell proteids, Buchner calls attention to its bearing upon the theory of the antiseptic and anlipyoDfenic action of the so-called pyoktanin of Stil- ling, the usefulness of which in practice is still sub judice. But more definite proof of the importance of the bac- terid-protein in inducing suppuration was still needed, and Buchner proceeded to separate it from cultures of the pneumo-bacillus after the method of Necki, by digestion of masses of culture in dilute potash and precipitation with acetic or hydrochloric acid. The precipitate separated by filtration was again dissolved in dilute potash sohition and reprecipitated. This was done the third time, and at last the purified product was brought into solution. This ma- terial gave the chemical reaction of an albuminoid body. Subcutaneous injection of this material in rabbits in some cases was followed by a gathering of leucocytes, in others not. As it seemed likely that on simple subcutaneous in- jection the material was readily and rapidly absorbed be- fore it produced local effects, recourse was had to a method of experiment used by Councilman in his well-known studies on suppuration (10). Small glass tubes, drawn out at the ends, were filled with the pneumo- bacillus protein, sealed up, and steiilized by steam for an hour. These were then in- troduced, with strict antiseptic precautions, beneath the skin of rabbits, shoved away from the opening, and, after they were healed in, their tips were broken off. After five days the tubes were exposed. Around the openings of these, as well as extending deep into their interior, were masses and plugs of leucocytes. Cultures showed no living bacteria. Control experiments with tubes filled with salt solution showed no collection of leucocytes. THE ACTION OF DEAD BACTERIA. H It tlius seemed to be proved that the pyogenic action of sterilized cultures of Friedlander's pneiimo-bacillus is due to the freed albuminoid constituents of the bacterial cell. That such a freeing of tlie contents of the bacteiial cells oc- curs in the tissues of the living; body seems evident from their well-known proneness to disintegration and the devel- opment of involution forms in suppurative foci. The next thing to be done was to carry on a similar series of experiments with other well-known pathogenic bacteria. To this task Buchner and his associates addressed themselves in a series of studies as yet not fidly published (11). But, even so far as their results are known, some most significant facts have been elicited. Buchner endeav- ored to separate by the method of Necki (see above) the bacterio-protein from about fifteen species of bacteria, but in many of these the attempt was unsuccessful, because sufficient solution and extraction of the proteid ingredients of the germs did not occur. The Bacillus i^yocyaneus gave the most abundant albuminous extract, but a sufficient amount was obtained from Staphylococcus pyogenes aureus, Bacillus typhosus, Bacillus suhtilis, Bacillus acidi lactici, and from the red potato ba':'illus for animal expeiiment. It was, in fact, found that capillary tubes filled with the puri- fied proteids from all these species of bacteria and placed beneath the skin of the rabbit showed after two or three days, extending into the open end, a plug of fibrinous pus several millimetres in length. This plug was found, on mi- croscopical examination, to consist largely of leucocytes. That the ordinary chemical decomposition products of bacterial cell life are not concerned in inducing this posi- tive chemotaxis in the leucocytes was shown by introducing beneath the skin of rabbits tubes filled with such substances as butyrate and valerianate of ammonia, trimethylamin, am- monia, glycocoll, leucin, tyrosin, urea, etc. These were, for th"e most part, wholly without effect upon the leucocytes, only glycocoll and leucin exciting in some cases a moderate chemotaxis, not at all to be compared, however, with that of the bacterio-proteins. It would thus seem to be highly probable, if not abso- lutely proved, that the power of exciting positive chemo- taxis, which at least many species of bacteria display, is 12 THE ACTION OF DEAD BACTERIA. due to the proteid iuji-redients of their bodies when these are set free, as they may be naturally when the germs disin- tegrate in the tissues, or artificially by chemical extraction. With that keenness and fertility of thought which char- acterizes Buchner's work, he now gave wider range to his investigation. He recognized the fact that, though of late the phagocytic action of the leucocytes has been especially emphasized in relation to bacteria, this is by no means their chiefest or most constant role. Dispose of bacteria the leucocytes undoubtedly do; whether after themselves killing them, or after they are destroyed by other ag;oncies, ])as not yet been fully determined. But by far the most constant phagocytic role of the leucocytes is in carrying on the process of resorption and disposal of useless particles and dead material in the living body. About such material they gather much as the}- do in the vicinity of bacteria, though not in such marked degree or under such dramatic conditions. Now, what attracts the leucocytes into the vicinity of a .particle of dead and useless muscle, or cartilage, or connect- ive tissue which they are to absorb and remove ? Certainly not bacterial poison, certainly not bacterial proteids, for with what may be called the normal phagocytic functions of the leucocytes bacteria have nothing to do. Having shown that a proteid substance derived from the bacterial cells was capable through chemotaxis of attracting leuco- cytes, Buchner now studied in a similar way the effects of closely allied substances — namely, the so-called vegetable caseins, gluten casein from wheat and legumin from peas, both separated by precipitation from alkaline solutions. Both of these substances were capable of exciting the most marked chemotaxis in the leucocytes of rabbits. More- over, as it has been shown that vegetable casein exists as such in the grain of cereals and of the leguminosse, he in- troduced beneath the skin of rabbits or guinea pigs, under strict antiseptic precautions, masses of wheat and pea meal, ami found that within two days these masses were sur- rounded and penetrated by enormous masses of leucocytes. Cultures from these masses proved the entire absence of bacteria. Starch introduced subcutaneously under the same conditions induced no gathering of leucocytes. THE ACTION OF DEAD BACTERIA. / I3 "Mf>^v That this gathering of leucocytes was due to cheraotaxis and not simply mechanical, owing to the tactile sensibility of the leucocytes, was shown by introducing subcutaneouslv in a rabbit in one place an emulsion of infusorial earth with 0*7-per-cent. salt solution, and in another place an emulsion of the earth with glutin casein. In the first, after three days, but few leucocytes had gathered about the foreign material, while the second was surrounded and partially penetrated by an enormous number of leucocytes. But still another step remained to be taken. As the gathering of leucocytes about dead organic fragments in the tissues which are to be removed, as so often happens, can not be ordinarily due to bacteria or bacterio-protein, so, also, interesting as the observation may be, can vegetable proteins have no part in the matter. So alkali albuminates were prepared and purified, in a manner similar to that em- ployed with the bacterial and other vegetable proteins from muscle, liver, lungs, and kidney of rabbits. These tested in the same way were all found to strongly attract leuco- cytes when introduced beneath the skin in tubes. Of the alkali albuminates prepared from blood, fibrin, yolk and white of egg, only the blood and yolk of egg showed mod- erate power of exciting positive chemotaxis. These experiments show that it is only ceitain of the decomposition products of animal tissue which pos- sess chemotactic powers, and that these, as a rule, are the earlier and not the ultimate products of the decom- position. Finally, as it has been shown that a general leucocytosis is apt to be associated with febrile inflammatory processes, Buchner and Roemer studied the effects of intravenous in- jections in rabbits of these various chemotactic proteids. They found that within eight hours of their introduction into the blood there was a marked leucocytosis lasting for several hours, and that this might he heightened by repeat- ed injections. Thus they found, by a daily injection of 2 c. c. of an eight-per-cent. solution of the bacterio-jiroteins of Ba- cillus pyocyaneus, the relation of white to red blood-cells, which at first was 1 to 318, was on the second day 1 to 126 ; on the third day, 1 to 102 ; on the fourth morning, 1 to 73 ; and on the same evening, 1 to 38. From this time on no 14 THE ACTION OF DEAD BACTERIA. increase was noted. The absolute number of the red blood-cells remained unchanpted, while there was an ab- solute sevenfold increase in the number of leucocytes. Gluten casein, as well as alkali albuminate from muscle, injected into the blood, showed similar but less pronounced effects. Considering now the bearing- of all these experiments on suppuration and on physiological resorption of dead or- ganic materials in the tissues, it would appear that in sim- ple resorption, as in l>acterial suppuration, the leucocAtes are drawn to the seat of operation by a proteid material. This in resorption seems to be furnished by the dead and disintegrating ti^sues themselves, and when the leucocytes have gathered up a certain amount of refuse in their bodies they may carry it away. In bacterial suppuration, on the other hand, the attracting material may be furnished by the protein of the disintegrating bodies of the bacteria them- selves, but poisonous ptomaines fumished by the live bac- teria may cause the destruction and degeneration of the at- tracted leucocytes, which thus collect as pus. Whether the ptomaines themselves may not indirectly furnish chemotactic material by causing the destruction of the tissue elements and the setting free of their albuAiinous constituents, is a matter requiring further study. It is also not improbable that the limited suppuration induced by bacteria-free chemical substances — such as tur- pentine, calomel, etc. — may be due to the chemotactic tissue-proteids set free by the action of the chemicals on these tissues. It seems probable that not only are the leucocytes drawn toward the chemotactic proteids thus produced in or intro- duced into the body, but that the fixed connective-tissue cells are stimulated to proliferation. In fact, Buchner found that by the introduction of a sterilized emulsion con- taining 3'5 milligrammes of pyocyaneus protein into the forearm of one of his associates, a severe inflammation was induced with all the symptoms of an acute typical erysipe- las, with lymphangcitis, such as must have involved the fixed connective-tissue cells. On the fourth day the inflamma- tory process underwent resolution. Gluten casein induced similar but less acute effects. THE ACTION OF DEAD BACTERIA. 15 These most clever and striking researches of Bnchner would seem to throw niucli light on the whole subject of the theory of suppuration, and to promise large accessions to ourknowleHge of inflammation when the many lines of thought and study which they suggest shall have been fol- lowed out. It is now evident that an aseptic suppuration is possible under a variety of conditions. It still remains true, however, for the purposes cf sur<>i- cal practice, that the suppurative processes as we see them in the clinic and at the bedside are due to the presence of bacteria of one form or another. It is true, also, that the suppurations which we can induce experimentally with ster- ilized — that is, dead — bacterial cultures, or with certain dead proteid substances — aseptic suppurations — are limited in their duration, extent, and destructive power, as compared with those occurring under the influence of living germs. This is because in the latter case the growing and new forming germs may keep up the inflammation once alight to an almost indefitiite extent. We purpose, in the paper which is to follow, to detail some results of a series of experiments on the action of dead tubercle bacilli on the living tissue not less striking than are those which show the power of other sterilized bacteria to induce suppuration. Bibliography. 1. Pfeffer. Unters. a. d. lotanischen Institut zu Tubingen, 1886-1888. 2. Engelmann. Bot. Zeitg., 1881. Prudden. Medical Rec- ord, March 26, April 2, 1887. 3. Stall). Zur Biologie der Myxomjceten. Bot. Zeitg., 1884:. 4. AH Cohen. Ctrlbl. far BaMeriologie, Bd. viii, 1890, No. 6, p. 165. 5. Massart and Bordet. Journal public par la soc. royale des sciences medicates et natureltes de Bruxelles, 1890, v. 6. Gabritchevski. Annates de Vinst. Pasteur., June 25, 1890. 7. Buehner. Berl. Min. Woch., 1890, No. 30, p. 673. 8. Bachner. Op. eit., p. 674. 9. Bachner. . Berl. Uiii. Woch., 1890, No. 10. 10. Councilman. Virchow's Archiv, Bd. 92, 1883. 11. Buehner. Berl. Min. Woch., 1890, No. 47. 16 THE ACTION OF DEAD BACTERIA. Second Aetiole. — The AcTioisr of Steeilized Cultures of THE TUBEECLE BaCILLUS. We have seen in the first article (1) that the action of bacteria in the body is by no means limited to the chanyjes induced by those substaoces called ptomaines and albu- moses, or toxaibarains, which are set free by living germs. Tt app?ars that the proteid constituents of the bacterial cells themselves, when these are set free, either by a natural disintei^ration of the germs or by an artificial extraction, are capable not only of stimulating the fixed body cells to proliferative changes, but may, by calling into play the forces involved in chemotaxis, cau-^e either a moderate col- lection of leucocytes or induce marked suppuration. It is probable that these two fairly distinct factors, the eliminated ptomaines and albumoses on the one hand, and the bacterio-proteins on the other, arc both involved in many, if not most, of the acute infectious diseases. But one or other of these factors is apt to be so preponderant in many cases as to fairly dominate both the symptoms and lesions. For example, in tetanus, typhoid fever, and Asiatic cholera, the toxic substances absorbed into the body at large from the seat of growth of the pathogenic germs may determine profound and even fatal symptoms without much local change at the proliferating germ centers. On the other hand, in many of the local suppurations — in pneumania and in tuberculosis, for example — the most marked effects are apt to be induced in the immediate vicinity of the invading germs. In still other diseases — diphtheria, for example — we may have extreme local tissue changes together with profound systemic effects. Finally, under a variety of unusual conditions, patho- genic germs which commonly induce one particular order of lesions may bring about most striking alterations of another class. As an example of this variability of effect, we may cite THE ACTION OF DEAD BACTERIA. 17 the suppurative inflammations which not infrequently occur as complications of typhoid fever, when these germs lodge or grow in unusual situations. Perhaps the most striking example of a pathogenic germ whose effects are closely limited to the immediate neighborhood of its seat of growth is the Bacillus tuber- culosis. That there may be systemic effects induced by the absorption into the body at large of poisons eliminated by the tubercle bacillus, we, of course, can not deny. But if such there be, we certainly know very little about them, and they must be insignificant in comparison with the dominant lesion of tuberculosis — namely, the production immediately about the germs of a new short-lived tissue having a moderately characteristic morphology and prone to undergo degenerative changes of great significance, both to the germs which cause it and to the integrity of the in- vaded organ. It is because of the peculiarly direct and constant re- lationship between the germ and the lesions which it in- duces that we have selected the tubercle bacillus for an experimental stady along the lines which our preliminary paper has suggested. But, before detailing our own experiments, it seems de- sirable to briefly notice some observations already made in this field, which will have a bearing in establishing our point of view. A number of studies have been made on the metabolic products set free during the growth of the tubercle bacillus both in cultures and in the body. But these studies have been made from such a variety of different standpoints and with such different technic^ue that it is difficult to glean any very positive and definite data from the results. Hammerschlag (2) found in the alcohol and ether extract of the t'lbercle bacilli, fat, lecithin, and a poison which in- duced spasms and death in rabbits and guinea-pigs. The residual material of the bacilli contained an albuminoid and cellulose. He could not separate a ptomaine by Brieger's method, but did find evidence of a fever-causing toxal- bumin. The recent publications of Koch on the nature and effects of substances in or derived from cultures of the 2 .18 THE ACTION OF DEAD BACTERIA. tubercle bai^illas we may assume to be familiar to all our rea