Improvements in or connected with antitoxins / [Wolfgang Weichardt].

  • Weichardt, Wolfgang.
Date:
1904
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Improvements in or connected with antitoxins / [Wolfgang Weichardt]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    2 No 710.—A.D. 1904. Weichardt’s Improvements in or connected with Antitoxins^ As mentioned before, the blood is the seat of the anti-toxins and normally possesses a certain quantity of anti-toxins which are capable of saturating the toxins of fatigue. Consequently my orocess may be modified by using blood serum or plasma obtained from unfatisued animals directly for neutralising or rendering harmless the toxins of fatigue, that is to say, by directly introducing such serum or plasma in a suitable 5 form into the fatigued organism. Dated this 11th day of January 1904. FAIRFAX & WETTER 37 & 39 Essex Street, Strand, London, Agents for the Applicant. 10 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION. Improvements in or connected witlx anti-toxins. I Wolfgang Weichardt, Doctor of Medicine, of 14, Lutherstrasse, Berlin, Germany do hereby declare the nature of the said invention and in what manner the same’is to be performed to be particularly described and ascertained in and by 15 the following statement:— I have discovered, as a result of numerous experiments, that fatigue (as dis¬ tinguished from exhaustion) of the human or animal body is produced by certain toxins, which are hardly traceable in the normal (not fatigued) organism, but which are always, and in considerable quantity, found in the fatigued organism. The said 20 toxins are present in the plasm of the blood and in the milk, as well as in the muscles These substances are saturated or rendered harmless by anti-toxins produced in the organs of the body when at rest, chiefly during normal sleep. _ . My invention relates to the production of these toxins of fatigue and of their 25 anti-toxins, the former being applicable for producing physiological conditions of sleep while the anti-toxins are intended for removing conditions of relaxation and fatigue. For obtaining toxins, muscular fatigue is induced in animals, such as guinea-pigs, preferably up to the commencement of yawning fits or spasms, after which the said animals are bled to deprive the muscles of blood; muscles are cut 30 out, after which they are preferably maintained at a temperature of 37° C for several hours and then pounded in a sterilised mortar. The muscle pulp thus obtained is relieved of superfluous liquid in a press, which has been previously sterilized. Suitable liquids, such as blood serum, or a physiological solution of table salt (a solution of about 0.8 parts of sodium chloride in 100 parts of distilled water) 35 may be added to and mixed with the muscle pulp, before it is pressed. The plasm thus obtained (viz: the liquid pressed out) contains in addition to the toxin of fatigue also numerous end products or waste products of normal physiological processes. It is first treated for several hours in a centrifugal machine for the removal of fat and similar matter, a portion of the. albumen is 40 precipitated out by known methods, and the remaining material dialised against distilled water in dialising pipes, thereby relieving it of the said end-products or waste material and of salts (which pass through the membrane, while the plasm remains behind). The organic plasm thus obtained therefore contains the toxin of fatigue. If desired, other organic plasm (viz : plasm obtained from other suitable 45 organs), or blood plasm, or suitable excretions or secretions of the fatigued animals, such as their milk, may also be employed as raw materials for obtaining or separating the toxin of fatigue. The toxin of fatigue or toxin material obtained as described may be condensed by known methods (for instance by boiling down in a vacuum), in order to obtain it 50 in a concentrated form,
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