Scientific American Supplement, No. 787, January 31, 1891Various
Science
Scientific American Supplement, No. 787, January 31, 1891
Various
Science -- Periodicals
Consequently, it contains a certain quantity of mineral salts,
coloring substances, and other unknown extractive matters. Some of
these substances can be removed from it tolerably easily. The
effective substance is insoluble in absolute alcohol. It can be
precipitated by it, though not, indeed, in a pure condition, but still
combined with the other extractive matter. It is likewise insoluble in
alcohol. The coloring matter may also be removed, rendering it
possible to obtain from the extract a colorless, dry substance
containing the effective principle in a much more concentrated form
than the original glycerine solution. For application in practice this
purification of the glycerine extract offers no advantage, because the
substances so eliminated are unessential for the human organism. The
process of purification would make the cost of the remedy
unnecessarily high.
Regarding the constitution of the more effective substances, only
surmises may for the present be expressed. It appears to me to be
derivative from albuminous bodies, having a close affinity to them. It
does not belong to the group of so-called toxalbumins, because it
bears high temperatures, and in the dialyzer goes easily and quickly
through the membrane. The proportion of the substance in the extract
to all appearance is very small. It is estimated at fractions of one
per cent., which, if correct, we should have to do with a matter whose
effects upon organisms attacked with tuberculosis go far beyond what
is known to us of the strongest drugs.
Regarding the manner in which the specific action of the remedy on
tuberculous tissue is to be represented, various hypotheses may
naturally be put forward. Without wishing to affirm that my view
affords the best explanation, I represent the process myself in the
following manner:
The tubercle bacilli produced when growing in living tissues, the same
as in artificial cultivations, contain substances which variously and
notably unfavorably influence living elements in their vicinity. Among
these is a substance which in a certain degree of concentration kills
or so alters living protoplasm that it passes into a condition that
Weigert describes as coagulation necrosis. In tissue thus become
necrotic the bacillus finds such unfavorable conditions of nourishment
that it can grow no more and sometimes dies.
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