STUDIES ON FERMENT ACTION : IX. A NOTE ON THE RELATION BETWEEN LYSIS AND PROTEOLYSIS OF PNEUMOCOCCI.

Bürgers, Schermann, and Schreiber (1) studied "Auflösungserscheinungen von Bakterien," and concluded that ferments were probably not the main factor in such lysis. Kantorowicz (2) in studying antiferment and bacteriolysis came to the opinion that there was an antiferment in the bodies of bacteria which prevented digestion. This antiferment was likewise an antibody to serum bacteriolysins. But Kantorowicz used as a standard of ferment action merely the clearing up of the bacterial suspension. Our report shows that lysis of pneumococci may be independent of ferment action, and that it is not correct to assume that clearing up of a bacterial suspension even in the presence of a proteolytic ferment indicates proteolysis.