294 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



dead organisms do not combine with silver, and Cedercreutz therefore 

 asserts that " non-affinity to silver is no criterion whatever of the life 

 or reproductive power of any bacterium." J. E. 



On a New Factor in the Mechanism of Bacterial Infection. — 

 W. E. Bullock and W. Cramer {Proc. Roy. Soc, 1919, 90, Series B, 

 513-29). After recapitulating the fact that the bacteria or spores of 

 gas gangrene and of tetanus, when completely freed from their soluble 

 toxins, do not produce specific effects when inoculated into a mouse or 

 guinea-pig — the normal animal disposing of the bacteria mainly by 

 lysis, but partly also by phagocytosis — the authors show that if a small 

 dose (2*5 milligram per 10-15 grm. body weight) of a soluble ionizable 

 calcium salt (e.g. chloride) is injected together with the bacteria or their 

 spores, the specific disease is elicited in a very virulent form. More- 

 over, direct contact between bacteria and calcium salt is not essential — 

 the two factors may be injected at different times into the same site, or 

 into different sites at the same or different times, since the calcium salts 

 produce local changes in the tissues at the site of injection, which results 

 in a local breaking down of the defensive mechanism against the bacteria 

 of gas gangrene and tetanus. They propose the terms " kataphylaxis " 

 or " defensive rupture " to designate the newly described phenomenon. 



J. E. 



Revision des Champignons Appartenant au Genre Nocardia. — 

 Froilano De Mello and J. F. St. Antonio Fernandes {Memoirs of 

 the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1919, 7, 103-38). The authors have in 

 this monograph studied the genus Nocardia in considerable detail, 

 enumerating the various recorded species in tabular form, together with 

 the synonyms which have from time to time been used — in all some 

 ninety-three definite species. Then follow tables giving the chief bio- 

 logical characters of each of the species referred to, whilst in a separa te 

 table the authors describe five new species encountered and studied by 

 them in New Guinea. A short synoptical table designed to simplify the 

 identification of an unknown streptothrix completes their work. Apart 

 from the new species described, this compilation will be of considerable 

 value to workers on this micro-organism, the only thing lacking being a 

 comprehensive bibliography. J.E. 



