ADVICE OF MEDICAL MEN.

Franklin Times, Volume 9, Issue 752, 1 August 1922, Page 8

ADVICE OF MEDICAL MEN.

The Microbe Killing Tear. J)r. Alexander Fleming, in the laboratory of Sir Almroth Wright at St. Mary’s Hospital, has been experimenting with human tears, and has discovered the existence of a very remarkable substance in them. It has been called Lysozyme. At the Royal Society annual conversazione recently he showed interested people what the “idle tear,’’ with its lysozymic action, could do against microbes. He rook a tiny drop of tear in a pippeite and gave it. is a lethal dose to a good many million bacteria which clouded a liquid in a test tube. Before you could say “Jack Robinson” (says one who was 'there), the idle tear had dissolved every microbe in the tube. In nearly all the tissues of the body and in most of the secretions and excretions, there exists this substance which kills* and dissolves many kind of bacteria. It is manifest even if only one tear is placed in 5.000,000 drops of solution or egg white diluted in 50,000000. The action is so rapid that ordinary microscopic methods are not quick enough for investigation. So far the Lysozyme has not been isolated. Dr. Fleming mentioned that he worked in his laboratory six months before he arrived at the conclusions that the substance existed. It occurs in such varied -substances as the tissue of some of the lower animals and certain vegetables such as the turnip, Other points noted about this highly potent killer of bacteria are that it is not affected by alcohol and is not used up readily because its “lytic” principle—or oper of dissolving bac-teria—-increases after it has started work.