Ptomaïns, leucomaïns, toxins and antitoxins, or, The chemical factors in the causation of disease / by Victor C. Vaughan and Frederick G. Novy.

  • Vaughan, Victor C. (Victor Clarence), 1851-1929
Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Ptomaïns, leucomaïns, toxins and antitoxins, or, The chemical factors in the causation of disease / by Victor C. Vaughan and Frederick G. Novy. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    into which an individual atom of carbon may enter during this long series of changes is almost unlimited, and with each change in combination there is more or less change in nature. In one combination the atom of carbon may exist as a con- stituent of a highly poisonous substance, while the next com- bination into which it enters may be wholly inert. It was formerly supposed that putrefaction was-simply oxidation, but the researches of Pasteur and others have demonstrated the fact that countless myriads of minute or- ganisms are engaged constantly in transforming matter from the organic to the inorganic form. Lock up the bit of flesh so that these little workers cannot reach it, and it will remain unchanged indefinitely. It may be asked if any of the changes occurring during putrefaction are to be regarded as purely chemic. Without doubt, many of the secondary products of putrefaction arise from reactions between antecedent and more complex products or by the action of oxygen, water, and reducing agents upon primary products. Ptoma'ins formed in this way may be regarded as the indirect results of bacterial life. Bacterial Proteids.—These substances have been known for so short a time and are at present so imperfectly known that many difficulties arise in discussing them. In the first place, we may divide the bacterial proteids into two classes: 1. Those which constitute an integral part of the bacterial cells; and 2. Those which have not been assimilated by the cells, but which have been formed by the fermentative or cleavage action of the bacteria on the proteid bodies in which they are growing. Even this classification is of questionable value. We allow bacteria to grow for a number of days in a nutrient solution. We then separate the soluble constituents from the formed cells by filtration through porous tile; we wash the latter and then study their proteid contents ; but a considerable proportion of the contents of the living cells has already passed into solution, and the bacterial detritus left on the filter gives no exact knowledge of the constituents of the