Abstract
The alcohol soluble specific substance of B. diphtheriae was studied, and an effort made to demonstrate such antigens in diferent micro-organisms, especially organisms related to B. tuberculosis and B. diphtheriae, and higher pathogenic fungi. The organisms were grown on 0.2 per cent dextrose broth, washed, dried, extracted twice with acetone and twice with alcohol. The immune sera were obtained from rabbits injected with suspensions of the micro-organisms. The titer of the diphtheria immune serum I and II in the complement fixation was 1:160 with the alcoholic extract, 1:160 with the bacillary suspension, and 1:160 with diphtheria broth. The titer with the alcoholic extract dropped in the course of one year to 1:40 and 1:15. The titer of the streptothrix serum I was 1:40 and that of II, 1:10 with alcoholic extracts, while with suspension of streptothrix serum II reacted stronger (1:300) than serum I (1:80). In a few months the titer of serum I dropped 1:15. No alcohol soluble antigens could be demonstrated in the case of B. xerosis, trichophyton and yeast, although the sera reacted with the suspensions of the respective organisms. With two strains of actinomyces no sera giving complement fixation were obtained. The negative results do not exclude the possibility that other, perhaps freshly isolated strains, would incite antibody production against the alcohol extracts.
The alcohol extract of B. diphtheriae gave positive complement fixation neither with tubercle bacillus nor with streptothrix immune sera. The diphtheria immune serum reacted in a dilution 1 :10 with suspension of tubercle bacillus and in a dilution 1 :30 with alcoholic extract of the same, but reacted neither with the suspension nor with the alcoholic extract of streptothrix.
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