Changes in the Dry Weight and the Deoxyribonucleic Acid Content of Proteus vulgaris caused by Penicillin

Abstract

BONIFAS¹ succeeded in stopping the lysis of the so-called ‘large bodies’ of Proteus vulgaris by increasing the osmotic value of the nutritive medium, and Gale² found that penicillin blocks the synthesis of high polymers, causing an accumulation of poly-peptides of low molecular weight and mononucleotides in the cell, which is accompanied by the increase in its osmotic value. On the basis of his own experiments and those of Gale, Bonifas concluded that the formation of the large body is caused simply by intake of water. Consequently, it is to be regarded as a plasmoptysis, in the course of which the protoplast leaving the cell gives rise to the large body.