570 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



agglutination and complement fixation when tested against abortivus- 

 immune sheep-serum. The infection was most probably conveyed to 

 the colt by means of the umbilicus. « 



Diphtheroid Organisms isolated from Lymphadenomatous Struc- 

 tures.* — J. A. Lanford has succeeded in cultivating seven strains of 

 diphtheroids, which resemble each other in their morphology and staining 

 reactions, from the spleen and lymph nodules in various- pathological 

 conditions. They were found to agglutinate the homologous sera, but 

 also, for example, the serum from a case of splenic angemia aggluti- 

 nated strains from cases of Hodgkin's disease. No opinion is offered 

 as to the possible role that these organisms may play in the production 

 of the diseases with which thev were asociated. 



Infection of Man with Bacterium tularense.f — W. B. Wherry 

 and B. H. Lamb report a case of human infection (multiple ulcerative 

 conjunctivitis and lymphadenitis) with Bacillus talarense, which organism 

 is, according to McCoy and Chapin, associated with a plague like-disease 

 of the Californian ground-squirrel (Citellus leechyi Richardson). The 

 bacterium is a very minute organism requiring special methods of cul- 

 tivation and staining for its identification. The best media for its 

 cultivation are coagulated hen's egg-yolk, and hen's ovo-mucoid with a 

 trace of yolk. For slide demonstration, anilin-water-Hoffman's violet 

 is particularly recommended. On the appropriate media minute viscous 

 colonies appear after two or three days under anaerobic conditions at 

 37° C. The organisms, which appear as minute coccoid bodies, are non- 

 motile. The disease is wide-spread among rodents, and it has been 

 found by experimental inoculation that small quantities of the virus of 

 the infection kill white mice and guinea-pigs in a few days, with charac- 

 teristic lesions. The Norway rat (Mus norvegicus) is relatively immune, 

 but the grey mouse {M. musculus) is susceptible. The suggestion is 

 thrown out that possibly this organism may some day take its place 

 along with Bacillus pestis as a menace to the human race. 



Bactericidal and Antitoxic Action of Lanthanum and Thorium 

 Salts on the Cholera Vibrio.! — Albert Frouin and D. Roudsky state 

 that, after mixing the microbic emulsion with an equal volume of lan- 

 thanum sulphate or thorium sulphate solution, centrifuging the mixture 

 after thirty minutes, and suspending the microbic deposit in a volume 

 of saline solution equal to that of the original emulsion, a guinea-pig 

 was able to survive a peritoneal injection of an amount equal to twice 

 that which proved fatal in eight hours without previous treatment. An 

 injection of three and a half times the fatal dose killed the guinea-pigs 

 at the end of twenty-four to thirty-six hours when using lanthanum 

 sulphate, but they survived this amount after its treatment with thorium 

 sulphate. Phagocytosis and dissolution of the vibrio in the peritoneum 

 of the guinea-pig is much more rapid in the case of the cultures treated 



* Amer. Journ. Trop. Diseases and Prev. Med., ii. (1914) pp. 194-8. 

 t Journ. Infect. Diseases, xv. (1914) pp. 331-40 (1 pi.), 

 t Comptes Rendus, clix. (1914) pp. 410-13. 



