Abstract
Our investigations 1 concerning the vaccination of animals through buccal and cutaneous routes have led us naturally to the study of the antigenic modifications of certain micro-organisms, especially of B. typhosus and B. paratyphosus B in contact with the body fluids. We shall give on this occasion some of our results.
As early as 1891, Metchnikoff 2 had seen that the vibrio Metch-nikovi, grown in the exudate of the immunized individual could form either clumps or give a culture made up of separate organisms, according to the previous environment of the microbe. Later Metchnikoff and Bordet 3 reported that “a vibrion chlorese (vibrion of eastern Prussia of highly accentuated virulence) was only partially affected by the serum of a horse immunized against cholera, after having been exposed for a certain time to the action of phagocytic protoplasm” “protoplasma phagocytaire”. Grass-burger and Shattenfroh, 4 in their work on symptomatic anthrax, found that the serum obtained by the injection of virulent exudate agglutinated the microbe growing in this exudate, but not the microbe grown upon artificial medium.
wijk, 5 in their work with B. pertussis, showed that by changing the nutritive medium, one can create, using parts of the same culture, races distinguished serodiagnostically by their agglutination reactions, incapable of uniting with the same antibodies, and whose injection into animals gives different immune-sera. Gay and Claypole 6 found the same thing for B. typhosus. Their cultures were grown either upon agar-agar or 10 per cent blood agar.
We used, throughout these experiments, the same strain of B. typhosus; one that we obtained by the courtesy of Dr. Holman of the Department of Pathology. The cultures were grown on ordinary agar slants for 24 hours at 37° C. and emulsified in physiological salt solution, 10 cc. for each slant.
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