Lysis of Vibrio comma by Bacteriophage and by Immune Serum. ∗

Abstract

The very simple idea that a bacteriophage may be a minute particulate living being capable of growing and multiplying within a larger living cell and able there to produce soluble enzymes which may act upon the bacterial structure and may eventually diffuse in solution through the medium has been postulated by d'Herelle and has been supported by ever-increasing experimental evidence assembled by his disciples. Certainly this conception is in accord with what we know about larger organisms such as the coccidia, the malarial Plasmodia, and the yeasts. The morphological observations upon the bacteriophage particles have been technically difficult and the results not wholly satisfactory. The study of other filterable viruses has met with similar difficulty.

Castaneda, 1 by a special staining technic, has been able to demonstrate quite clearly the minute rod-like Mooser bodies that develop on the serous tunic of the guinea pig's testis after inoculation with Mexican typhus fever and the resulting pictures are so definite that one is inclined to accept these minute rods as microbes and as the probable microbic cause of the disease.

In the present study the Austria strain of Vibrio comma was subjected to lysis by immune serum in one series of tubes and in a companion series it was subjected to lysis by a bacteriophage, kindly sent to us by Lieutenant Colonel J. Morison, I.M.S., of the Pasteur Institute at Shillong, Assam, India. At intervals of 15 to 30 minutes the bacteria were thrown down by centrifuge and the sediments were stained by Castaneda's technic.

In the microscopic study of the stained preparations from the serum-series a considerable amount of debris, apparently derived in part from the serum, was found associated with the bacterial cells undergoing lysis.