Abstract
It is of interest to find out if the close serological relation between the alcohol soluble substances of tubercle bacillus and that of B. smegmae is connected with a similarity as to their chemical characteristics, as far as they can be established.
The smegma strain used was the same as employed in previous work in this laboratory. It is not impossible that between the different strains of smegma bacillus there is a variation as to their serological properties. The methylalcohol extract was obtained after previous extraction of the dried bacilli with ether (twice) and ethylalcohol (twice). The immunserum was obtained from rabbits injected with suspension of the bacilli. The titer of the serum in the complement fixation was 1:300 with the bacillary suspension and also with alcohol extract.
In the Castellani experiment made with tuberculosis and smegma immunsera, no difference was found between the corresponding extracts, as they absorbed the antibodies for each other from both of the sera.
The specific substance is soluble in ethylalcohol and in ether, and insoluble in acetone, like the specific substance of alcoholic extract of tubercle bacillus. The crude methylalcohol extract was purified with acetone. The extraction of the evaporated extract, with acetone, seemed to enhance the potency of the preparation; the antigen unit of the crude extract 0.00015 mgm. after extraction with acetone, and, solution in ether was 0.00005 mgm. Preparations obtained after two acetone precipitations of the ether solution of the substance lost something of their potency. They were markedly more potent than the original crude methylalcoholic extract (antigen unit 0.00015 mgrn.). None of the acetone solutions has shown specific effect. In most of the preparations the antigen unit is somewhat smaller than the antigen unit of the corresponding preparation made from tubercle bacillus.
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