392 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



These results are said to be produced by a toxin analogous to snake- 

 venom (Viperidse), and death may supervene within five hours of inocu- 

 lation. Similar results were obtained with inoculation experiments on 

 rabbits. The strains used were isolated from healthy persons, from a 

 case of puerperal septicemia, and from guinea-pigs. 



Researches on the Etiology of Acute Polyarticular Rheumatism.* 

 P. Danielopolu describes the appearances of a micro-organism which 

 he observed in direct examination of smears from joint-exudate in a 

 typical case of the above. The smears were fixed with methyl-alcohol 

 and stained by Giemsa. The organism (a bacillus with squared or 

 rounded euds) varies considerably in size ; it is generally extra-cellular, 

 but is also met with in the polymorphonuclear leucocytes, and but rarely 

 in the endothelial cells. Further researches upon the morphology, etc., 

 of this organism are in progress. 



Atypical Paratyphoid Bacilli isolated by Blood-culture. f — During 

 his observations on para-typhoid fever in Algeria. Roussel has met with 

 atypical bacilli belonging to the above group, which do not correspond 

 with either of the classical types, Paratyphoid A or Paratyphoid B. 

 They resemble Paratyphoid B in that they do not produce any change 

 in litmus-milk, and do not blacken double tartrate of iron and potash- 

 agar ; but, on the other hand, they do not ferment arabinose (one strain 

 fermented slightly), nor is fermentation produced to any extent in glucose 

 media (Rothberger). They also differ from the " metatyphoid " bacilli 

 described by Mendelbaum, as they produce yellow and not red colonies 

 on rosalic-acid-glycerin agar. 



Vitality of G-onococcus Cultures.:}: — A. Lumiere and J. Chevrotier, 

 experimenting with gonococci, have found that the viability of these 

 delicate organisms can be prolonged greatly by growing in Erlenmayer 

 flasks, either in vacuo or under a layer of liquid paraffin. Cultures treated 

 by these methods and kept at 37° C. were still active at the end of four 

 months, while control cultures died out at the end of fifteen days or 

 three weeks. The authors suggest that, as the action of oxygen per se 

 has no deleterious influence on the vitality of the organism, the substance 

 inimical to development may be an oxidation product of the endotoxin 

 secreted by the gonococcus. 



Decomposition of Formates by Bacillus coli communis.§ — E. C. 



Grey has studied the circumstances under which Bacillus coli communis 

 is able to decompose formates, which are conditioned by the presence or 

 absence of an enzyme which decomposes formic acid. The splitting up 

 of formates in the culture medium is inhibited by a small excess of 

 either acid or alkali, and therefore a greatly increased decomposition 

 is caused by the addition of glucose, due to the neutralization of the 



* Centralbl. Bakt., lte Abt. Orig., lxxiii. (1914) pp. 353-4. 



t C.R. Soc. Biol. Paris, lxxvi. (1914) pp. 721-3. 



% Comptes Rendus, clviii. (1914) pp. 1820-1. 



§ Proc. Roy. Soc, Series B, lxxxvii. (1914) pp. 461-71. 



