ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 507 



Schizophy ta. 

 Schizomycetes. 



Formic Acid Fermentation.* — P. Maze states that formic acid fer- 

 mentation is due to the presence of a strictly anaerobic organism 

 which bears a morphological resemblance to a Sarcina, and that the 

 fermentation in question is characterized by the production of carbonic 

 acid gas and formic acid. When fermentable media, containing calcium 

 carbonate, with either neutral or alkaline reactions, are inoculated with 

 either particles of manure, vegetable mould, arable earth, liquid manure, 

 or drain- or river-water, and placed in the incubator at 30°C., a butyric 

 acid fermentation takes place. After several days the butyric acid 

 fermentation is arrested somewhat abruptly, and formic acid commences 

 to appear in the medium, coincident with the growth of the specific 

 formic-acid producing organism. The ferment will not, however, grow 

 in pure culture, and is always found in symbiotic association with 

 organisms causing butyric acid fermentation. 



The organism grows well in a medium containing saccharose broth to 

 which small quantities of various organic and inorganic salts have been 

 added (chloride of ammonia, phosphate of potash, sulphate of magnesium, 

 iron, zinc and manganese, silicate of potash, lactate of calcium, acetate 

 of calcium, etc.). The medium is inoculated with manure, and at the 

 end of some hours a mycelial scum develops on the surface of the liquid, 

 thus giving the necessary anaerobic conditions for the growth of the 

 specific ferment. 



Fatal Gas-gangrene caused by the Bacillus "Neigeux."f — S. 

 Costa and J. Troisier record a case of fatal gas-gangrene in a wounded 

 soldier, in which the causal organism was neither the Bacillus perfringens 

 nor the B. ccdematis maligni, although the clinical syndrome was highly 

 suggestive of infection by these organisms. From the serum exudate of 

 the patient was isolated a bacillus of the perfringens type, non-motile and 

 without spores. It was Gram-positive, from 4-6 //. in length and about 

 1 ix in thickness. The characteristic colonies appeared in Yeillon's agar, 

 forming whitish masses of flocculent aspect, resembling flecks of snow. 

 No growth took place in liquid media. 



All the appearances of the organism indicated its identity with the 

 B. "neigeux" Jungano. This organism, which is a normal inhabitant 

 of the urinary passages, is therefore to be added to the list of bacteria 

 which are able to act as causal agents in gas-gangrene infection. 



Bacteriology of Malignant (Edema. $ — E. Sacquepee describes an 

 organism which he has found in association with a peculiarly virulent 

 type of malignant oedema, which has been called " oedeme gazeux malm." 



Morphologically, the bacillus found in the exudate and pathological 



* C.R. Soc. Biol. Paris, lxxviii. (1915) pp. 398-405. 

 + C.R. Soc. Biol. Paris, lxxviii. (1915) pp. 352-5. 

 % C.R. Soc. Biol. Paris, lxxviii. (1915) pp. 316-8. 



