ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 91 



vacuum-cleaners. The tubercle bacillus was recovered from three out of 

 eighteen cultures from fresh dust, and was found to be full of virulence. 

 Other organisms isolated were B. subtilis, various representatives of the 

 Mesentericus group, and putrefactive organisms such as B. serogenes 

 capsulatus, B. enteriditis sporogenes, B. tetani, and the bacillus of Rodella. 

 The anaerobic bacteria of the dust are derived from the earth, smoke,, 

 and foecal matter. They are the ordinary intestinai flora of man and 

 the domestic animals. The author states that from the point of hygiene 

 it is important to preserve our food and respiratory mucous membranes 

 from the spores of such microbes. He thinks, indeed, that many cases- 

 of tetanus, in which the portal of entry cannot be found, are due to the 

 action of contaminated dust acting on slightly abraded surfaces. 



Intestinal Flora of Sprue.*— C. Elders has isolated an organism 

 with the following characters from a case of typical sprue. AYith 

 Neisser's stain the bacilli gave blue-staining polar bodies, with brown 

 coloration of the bodies of the organisms. On glycerin-agar, after twenty- 

 four hours at 37° C, a growth of small grey colonies with wavy edges 

 was obtained. Milk curdled and soured in four days. The bacteria 

 were non-motile and did not form spores. Mannite, lactose, and glucose 

 were fermented. The bacteria grew best anaerobically, and glucose-agar 

 stab-culture gave colonies having branching outgrowths. There was 

 no growth in gelatin. It is possible that these diphtheroid bacilli may be 

 lactic-acid bacilli derived from the milk-diet on which the patient had 

 been placed. 



Actions of Micro-organisms on Bone-marrow.f — Y. Matsueka 

 records the results of his experiments on the effect of infection with 

 staphylococci, streptococci, and tubercle bacilli on bone-marrow trans- 

 planted into the spleen. From previous experiments (IDIG) it was seen 

 that bone-marrow transplanted autoplastically into the spleen is com- 

 letely healed over five months after transplantation, there being no 

 evidence of connective tissue reaction. The present experiments were 

 designed with the view of finding if various forms of functional 

 stimulation of the graft could call forth a distinctive active manifes- 

 tation of function. Bouillon cultures of streptococci and staphylococci, 

 or cultures of tubercle bacilli, were injected into the auricular veins 

 of rabbits, which had previously been treated witli marrow-grafts. 

 Bone-marrow autoplastically transplanted into the spleen is converted 

 mainly into cellular marrow and partly into gelatinous marrow by 

 chronic streptococcic and staphylococcic infection, which eventually 

 causes the death of the rabbit. The uninjured marrow in the femur 

 shows exactly the same changes. The graft of bone-marrow is in 

 part converted into cellular marrow by slight irritation of a tuberculous 

 infection, whereby the reaction in the graft and in the marrow itself 

 is identical. Bone-marrow autoplastically transplanted into the spleen 

 is enclosed and healed over in strange surroundings without loss of 

 its functional capacities, and, when infected, it shows the same 



* Nederl. Tijdschr. v. Geneesk., i. (1917) pp. 17-20.. 

 t Journ. Path, and Med., ixi. (1917) pp. 501-10. 



