The Histological Changes Produced by Ricin and Abrin Intoxications

The study of the effects of the living pathogenic organisms upon the animal body has been succeeded by an era in which especial attent-ion has been directed to the influence of their soluble products. The researches of Oertel* upon human diphtheria, of Babes t and of Welch and Flexner$ upon the experimental form of the disease, the latter including the effects of the soluble products of the growth of the bacillus diphtheriee, and of Flexner§ upon the pathological changes caused by the soluble products of the streptococcus erysipelatos alone and combined with the diphtheria toxin, as well as studies of the toxic substances contained within the dead bodies of the cholera spirillum, have shown that these toxins may be very potent agents of metamorphosis of cell and tissue, and make it more than probable that in most instances, if not in all, they are the chief instruments of bacterial attack. Bodies similar to the toxalbumius of bacterial orion have been obtained from the higher plants and even from certain normal animal fluids. Thus from the seeds of the castor plant, Ricinus communis, the jequirity bean, A:brus precatorius, ricin and abrin have been