ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 295 



appearance of a rosary, resembling both as to form and dimensions the 

 granules of Leuconostoc mesenteroides. 



The infection cannot be transferred to healthy beets, even when 

 they are cut in half and applied to a gummy beet. It is probable that 

 diverse agents that reduce the vitality of the cells are responsible for 

 the development of the gum bacterium. The exceptionally cold winter 

 in France, and the great difficulties of agricultural transport owing to 

 the European war, may well account for the lowering of the vitality of 

 the beets which were attacked by the bacterium. 



Disappearance of the Spores of Bacillus perfringens from the 

 Faeces of Immunized Monkeys.* — S. Marbais has shown that the 

 subcutaneous injection of abundant cultures of the Bacillus perfringens 

 into monkeys (Rhesus, Sinicus and Cynomolgus) is not followed by the 

 production of gas gangrene or gas abscess, the local reaction provoked 

 by the inoculation rapidly disappearing. The inoculation of 100,000,000 

 living organisms per kilo, of monkey is followed by irritation of the 

 large intestine and by tumefaction of the anal muscle, accompanied by 

 blood-stained and grairy diarrhoea. 



Monkeys so inoculated acquire an active immunity which is charac- 

 terized by the disappearance of the spores of the bacillus, and in general 

 all spores, from the fasces of the animal. 



Researches in Gas Gangrene.f — The causal organism or organisms 

 of gas gangrene, which produced such terrible ravages among the 

 wounded at the battle of the Marne, may be identified with the group 

 of bacteria that contains Bacillus perfringens (Veillon) (B. capsulatus 

 aerogenes of Welch). 



M. Weinberg has prepared an " anti-perfringens " (" anti-P.") 

 serum, by means of the intravenous injection in horses, at first of dead 

 cultures, and then of living cultures of B. perfringens. After three 

 months 1 immunization the serum was tried on guinea-pigs with encour- 

 aging results — guinea-pigs given 1 c.cm. of the serum intravenously 

 readily surviving a subsequent lethal dose of the organism, and not 

 giving any local reaction at the seat of inoculation. Moreover the 

 serum possessed a curative value — 2 c.cm. of serum intravenously and 

 ?. to 5 c.cm. in the neighbourhood of the lesion, saving the life of one 

 out of five guinea-pigs that were in articulo mortis from perfringens 

 infection. 



The serum has been tried in one case of gas gangrene at the Saint 

 Michel Hospital with the most satisfactory results. The wounded 

 soldier received an intravenous injection of 22 c.cm. of the anti-P. 

 serum, and a marked improvement in his condition, leading to eventual 

 recovery, rapidly manifested itself. 



New Pathogenic Yeast (Saccharomyces Lamonnieri sp. n.)4 

 A. Sartory and Ph. Lasseur have isolated an entirely new species of 



* C.R. Soc. Biol. Paris, lxxviii. (1915) pp. 50-2. 



t Comptes Rendus, clx. (1915) pp. 325-8. 



t C.R. Sec. Biol. Paris, lxxviii. (1915) pp. 48-9. 



