486 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



stained by Gram, but at times they ended in long threads which were 

 decolorised l>y this method ; with Loeffler's methylen-blue the body of 

 the organism was only faintly stained, but showed the presence of dark- 

 bine grannies. On gelatin plates after two days there appeared minute, 

 coarsely granular colonies with finely toothed margins, which by the 

 fifth day showed yellow-brown centres, and later developed into flowery 

 rosettes with black-brown centres ; the gelatin is not liquefied. On 

 glycerin-agar slope there appeared a dirty yellowish-white streak with a 

 finely toothed margin which became more marked in older growths ; in the 

 water of condensation were yellow-white soft thread-like masses. There 

 was similar growth on glucose agar with no formation of gas. On 

 human blood serum-agar there was very rapid growth, the entire surface 

 of the medium after 48 hours being covered by a grey-white shining 

 membrane, consisting of coccal forms, short threads and stout bacilli, 

 also many long rods and spindles. Broth cultures after five days showed 

 uniform cloudiness and a thread-like deposit, but no pellicle formation ^ 

 the culture consisted chiefly of threads, but there were also many involu- 

 tion forms. There was good growth on litmus milk which remained 

 neutral and uncoagulated, and consisted chiefly of mono-, diplp-, and short 

 streptococcal forms. On potato there was a slow and scanty growth, 

 only with difficulty to be differentiated from the medium. The organism 

 was not pathogenic for rabbits, guinea-pigs, rats, or white mice. 



Micro-organisms of Meat Poisoning.* — H. de R. Morgan records 

 his observations on these organisms. He gives details of the cultural 

 reactions of 41 different strains of intestinal and food-poisoning bacilli. 

 He found that culturally and biologically the bacilli of the enteriditis 

 group and of the paratyphoid group include most of the organisms 

 that give rise to food poisoning, and to cases of disease resembling 

 typhoid fever. To determine whether the bacilli of these two groups 

 were represented by analogous types in the intestines of normal animals, 

 he examined fa3ces obtained from guinea-pigs, rabbits, sheep and pigs, 

 and scrapings from the mucous surfaces of the small and large intestines 

 of three pigs, three sheep, two bullocks, one horse, one calf, and one 

 child dead from broncho-pneumonia. Emulsions from each in distilled 

 water were made, and | c.cm. added to tubes of bile salt dulcit broth 

 coloured with neutral red, and incubated at 42° C. for 24 hours. Of 

 these cultures 4 c.cm. were injected subcutaneously into a number of 

 guinea-pigs ; from the heart blood of these animals, that died within 

 four days, cultures were made on bile salt dulcit broth and incubated at 

 42° C. for 24 hours ; if gas and acid were produced then neutral red 

 bile salt agar plates were made and incubated at 42° C for 24 hours ; 

 from the colourless colonies bile salt dulcit broth tubes were inoculated 

 and incubated at 42° C. for 24 hours, and those tubes that gave gas 

 and acid were used to inoculate broths containing glucose, dulcite, 

 mannite, lactose, cane-sugar and pepton, also tubes of litmus milk, 

 agar and gelatin. By this process he isolated 21 cultures of the 

 enteriditis type, namely, motor rods like B. enteriditis of Gaertner, not 

 staining by Gram, showing cream-coloured growth on agar and gelatin, 



* Brit. Med. Journ.. 1905, i. p. 1257. 



