The progress of the defensive ferment reaction of Abderhalden / by Bayard Holmes.

  • Holmes, Bayard, 1852-1924.
Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The progress of the defensive ferment reaction of Abderhalden / by Bayard Holmes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    Briefly, we may say that this method de- pends upon the liberation of coloring mat- ter in the albumin molecule of the funda- ment by the action of the defensive fer- ment. After the fundaments (substrate) are prepared peptone-free, they are each stained in a weakly alkaline but saturated solution of carmine in water. In this solu- tion they must be boiled until they are al- most black with the stain. In order that every particle of the fundament may be deeply stained, it should be first divided into as fine particles as possible before it is put into the carmine dye. When, after an hour or two, the fundament has taken up all the carmine possible, it is washed in the running hydrant water for hours, until the wash water contains no trace of color. The fundament is then boiled in distilled water as long as any trace of the carmine appears in the boiling water. It is then tested for peptone in the usual manner, and if found all right it is ready for use. The test is made in the following man- ner, and commends itself on account of its directness and simplicity: To the usual amount of finely divided and now almost black fundament in a test tube is added a cubic centimeter and a half of the ferment bearing serum, which has itself been cen- trifuged until it is a perfectly clear, light straw color. The fundament and the serum are mixed by swinging and shaking the test tube, and then a small amount of toluol is poured over the surface and it is set aside to incubate for ten hours. If the serum peptonizes any of the highly stained albu- min, the stain for so much albumin will be set free and it will give a carmine color to the supernatant serum, while if none of the albumin is peptonized the light straw color of the serum will remain above the funda- ment. Thus, as soon as the tubes are taken out of the incubator, the results declares themselves to the eye. This method is not yet to be recom- mended for general use. There are times when it is not positive. A small amount of