Abstract
There is doubt as to how much significance should be attached to the belief that certain pathological conditions are due to the absorption of intestinal toxins. Similar doubts are expressed concerning the value of interpretations based on the experimental work done, since most of it has been done with either a pure culture of bacterium isolated from the intestinal tract, or with extracts of the feces. It seems possible that mixtures of bacteria grown in the presence of protein or carbohydrates may produce toxic substances not to be found in pure cultures, and it is also possible that some unknown organism may grow under such symbiotic conditions and produce its specific toxin. The following experiments were conducted to determine the effect of toxins of the intestinal bacteria on blood regeneration.
The culture medium consisted of bouillon containing either finely chopped beef, or brain. To half of each series was added 1 per cent soluble starch. One half of the flasks were inoculated with saline emulsions of feces from a patient with pernicious anemia, and the other half with feces from a normal individual. Control uninoculated flasks were incubated for the same periods. The flasks were removed from the incubator at intervals of 1 week, 2 weeks and 4 weeks, and the contents passed through Berkefeld filters. Only those filtrates found to be sterile by aerobic and anaerobic methods were used. The filtrates were kept in the ice-box, but even then the toxicity soon decreased.
Rabbits were used in all experiments. The filtrates were given intravenously in amounts of 0.25 to 0.5 cc., diluted 1 to 3 with salt solution, or subcutaneously in 1 cc. doses. The injections were given at intervals of 48 hours.
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