ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 77 



sists of a bacillary and probably an amoebic form ; tbat tbo bacillary 

 form occurs as an acute anil a cbronic disorder, aud tbat the cause of 

 the bacillary disease agrees in its morphological cultural characters 

 and pathogenic properties with the bacillus isolated by Shiga in 

 Japan.* 



Changes in Anthrax in Decomposing Blood, f — E. Berndt kept 

 blood of cattle dead of anthrax in a dark cool place, and examined 

 samples thereof daily by both Klett's and Olt's staining methods. Up 

 to the thirteenth day the preparations showed well-marked anthrax 

 bacilli. The decay of these bacteria appears to start in the central 

 parts, the blue staining segments becoming insensitive to pigments and 

 granular, while the external portion or sheath retains its staining 

 properties longer. 



Immunisation of Anthrax against Rat Serum. % — J. Danyi?z, who 

 has conducted experiments with anthrax and rat serum, finds that 

 this serum does not contain a bacteriolytic diastase, but merely a sub- 

 stance analogous to au antiseptic which fixes ou the bacterium, and 

 while, on the one hand, it paralyses the functions of assimilation and 

 growth, on the other it favours the secretion and digestive action of a 

 diastase secreted by the microbe itself. Against the action of the 

 noxious substance in rat serum the microbe defends itself by the forma- 

 tion of a mucilaginous sheath which fixes this substance outside the 

 body of the microbe. The immunisation of the bacterium against this 

 substance does not render it individually moro resistant to auto-diges- 

 tion, but simply allows it to nourish itself and give new cultures before 

 it is digested. Rat serum freed from its antiseptic forms a good culture 

 medium, and this explains why, under certain conditions, a mixture rich 

 in serum will give a culture more abundant than a mixture containing 

 a less proportion of serum. The author then passes on to discuss the 

 immunisation of anthrax to arsenic, and shows that there is a great 

 analogy between the mechanism of the action of arsenious a^id and 

 that of rat serum, and that the mechanism of immunisation is identical 

 in the two cases. 



Feeding Animals on Food Contaminated with Anthrax Spores.§ — 

 Dr. Nikolsky fed animals (rabbits, rats, guinea-pigs, mice) on food con- 

 taminated with anthrax spores, and found that the disease developed 

 just as easily as from other methods of infection. The spores developed 

 in the intestines, notwithstanding the competition and autagonism (if 

 the intestinal microbes. They penetrated the mucosa and passed into 

 the lymphatic and blood-vessels. 



Loss of Liquefactive Power of Anthrax.|| — Dr. T. Matzuschita, 

 after referring to the variability of certain functions in bacteria, and 

 more especially the loss of their power to liquefy gelatin, stat' s that 

 Bacillus anthracis may be affected in this way. By cultivating for 

 about 18 months in 10 p.c. gelatin at room temperature, and with occa- 

 sional transferences, be has obtained cultures which only begin to liquify 

 gelatin after about 50 days, though their other properties (morphological 



* Cf. this Journal, 1899, p. 72. 



t Centralbl. Bakt., 1" Abt., xxviii. (1900) pp. 018-51 (1 pi.). 



j Ann. Inst. Pasteur, xiv. (1900) pp. 641-55. § Tom. cit., pp. 791-01. 



|| Centralbl. Bakt, 1" Abt., xxviii. (1900) pp. 303-4. 



