76 SUMMARY OF QUERENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



resemble a central body with radiating processes. Tbe bacillus thrives 

 best on acid-sugar gelatin, though it grows pretty well on ordinary 

 alkaline gelatin. The gelatin is not liquefied. It does not do well on 

 agar or blood-serum. At room temperature cow's milk is not coagu- 

 lated, but clots at 37° to a thick soupy consistence, and in both cases 

 with free access of air. The optimum temperature is between 20° and 

 30° C. It is killed in 10 minutes at 60°. It developes gas (C0. 2 ) in 

 mare's milk. Spore-formation was not observed. It is easily stained, 

 and is not decolorised by Gram's method. From cultivations in mare's 

 milk, the author concluded that the Koumiss bacillus decomposes milk- 

 sugar, jn-oducing lactic acid and alcohol, and that it is able to peptonise 

 albumen. 



Microbe of Stringy Bread. * — Dr. J. Thomann isolated from two 

 kinds of flour — mixtures of wheat and rye meal — a mesentericus-like 

 bacillus, pure cultures of which made normal bread stringy. The 

 bacillus is a long, thin rodlet, often forming filaments ; it is motile, and 

 forms oval spores ; it is easily stainable, and also by Gram's method ; it 

 liquefies gelatin, and is cultivable also on agar and potato, in grape-sugar, 

 and in pepton bouillon ; it grows better at incubation than at room 

 temperature. It is probably identical with the organism described by 

 Vogel under the name of B. mesentericus panis viscosi it. 



Tubercle Bacilli in Frogs.t — Prof. O. Lubarsch discusses the state- 

 ments relative to the effect of tubercle bacilli on frogs made by Siou,^: 

 and expresses his own views as follows : — When tubercle bacilli are 

 introduced into a lymph-space of a frog, they are regularly transported 

 to the internal organs, and are there demonstrable even after weeks and 

 months. At the inoculation site it is not uncommon to find granu- 

 lations formed around the small collection of fungi so as to resemble 

 the histological picture of a tubercle, while in the internal organs there 

 is little or no tissue proliferation. The tubercle bacilli, after a 6tay of 

 a week or so in the internal org-ans, are no longer able to excite tuber- 

 culosis in a guinea-pig, and this loss of virulence is proportionate to the 

 original virulence of the inoculated fungus. 



iEtiology of Tropical Dysentery.§— Prof. S. Flexner, who had the 

 opportunity of studying tropical disease occurring in the Philippine 

 Islands, states that there are two distinct types of bacteria in dysentery. 

 Type i. is abundant in acute cases. It is about the same size as B. coli 

 communis ; it grows well on all media at room temperature, but better 

 in the thermostat ; it is motile, and does not stain by Gram's method ; 

 gelatin is not liquefied ; it does not produce gas ; indol is not always 

 formed ; it is pathogenic to ordinary laboratory animals. Type ii. is 

 present in all instances, though in acute cases it may be less numerous 

 than type i. It has the characters of the B. coli group, and differs from 

 the preceding type by the formation of acid and of gas, and the amount 

 of indol produced. Observations were also made as to the presence of 

 amoebae. These were commonly present, though in variable numbers, in 

 the chronic cases. The author concludes that tropical dysentery con- 



* Centralbl. Bakt., 2" Abt., vi. (1900) pp. 740-2. 



t Op. cit., V Abt., xxviii. (1900) pp. 421-30. 



X Cf. this Journal, 1900, p. 628. 



§ Centralbl. Bakt., 1" Abt., xxviii. (1900) pp. G25-31. 



