ZOOLOGY .VXD BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 63 



with Bacillus pestis. A negative reaction is. however, of no value, as 

 the organ used may have been pest-infected, but the number of bacilli 



present may not have been sufficient for the purposes of t he t est . While 

 in no way replacing the recognized methods of plague diagnosis, the 

 thermoprecipitin reaction " by reason of its speed, simplicity, indepen- 

 dence of climatic conditions, or putrefaction in the cadaver, and avail- 

 ability in addition to the usual bacteriological methods, is a valuable 

 supplement to them." 



Human and Rat Leprosy.* — A. Philibert directs attention to the 

 striking resemblance of human to rat leprosy with regard to geographical 

 distribution, clinical features, pathology, and bacteriology, all of which 

 point to the closest relationship or actual identity of the Hansen bacillus 

 with the bacillus of Stefansky. Philibert believes that the rat strain 

 has now lost its power of infecting human beings, and that consequently 

 rats suffering from rat leprosy cannot be considered as dangerous to 

 humans. 



New Pathogenic Oospora (Oospora bronchialis).t — A. Sartory 

 and Ph. Lasseur have isolated a new species of Oospora from the expec- 

 toration of a patient detained at the military hospital at Nancy about 

 the time of the outbreak of the European. War. He was suffering from 

 cough and breathlessness accompanied by rapid emaciation. The fungus 

 was isolated from small yellowish-white masses which were found sus- 

 pended in the sputum. After two months' treatment with potassium 

 iodide the patient was on the high road to recovery. 



The parasite was isolated by plating out on maltose-gelatin-agar. 

 An exact idea of the structure of the organism can be obtained by 

 cultivating it in a hanging drop in maltose broth at 37° C. After 

 24 hours the mycelial filaments become elongated up to 2 mm. in 

 length. These filaments, which are fixed and are entangled one with 

 the other, possess regular lateral ramifications. These ramifications 

 appear first on the sides of the principal filaments in the form of little 

 nipples with rounded-off extremities. The conidia come into being at 

 the free extremity of a filament, which becomes elongated and swells 

 itself so as to constitute a little club separated from the parent filament 

 by a partition. This phenomenon keeps on repeating itself, and results 

 in a series of conidia being formed one behind the other, so as to form 

 a little chain, the free conidia having the form of little barrels. Th 

 chains are very fragile, and are easily broken or detached. The number 

 of the conidia varies from 15 to about 20, and the largest measure some 

 • 6 /jl. These characters are those of a fungus of the genus Oospora 

 Wallroth. The organism does not grow on broth, Raulin's medium, 

 carrot, potato, banana, etc., but develops on the addition of maltose to 

 the various media. The parasite is pathogenic for the guinea-pie; and 

 rabbit, which animals reveal, post mortem, a bilateral purulent pleurisy. 

 the lungs being capped with a false membrane. The parasite reseinl>le-v 



* Progres Mrdical, xlii. (1914) pp. 210-12. 

 t Cornptes Rendus, olix. (1914) pp. 758-9. 



