ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 199 



Babbits may be rendered immune by gradually increasing doses of a 

 living culture of B. icteroides of weak virulence, from a fatal dose of 

 a virulent culture of the hog-cholera bacillus. The sera of animals 

 immunised with B. icteroides and with the hog-cholera bacillus, respec- 

 tively, show a marked reciprocal agglutinative reaction. While the 

 blood of yellow fever practically does not exercise an agglutinative 

 reaction on B. icteroides, the blood of hog-cholera agglutinates this 

 bacillus in a much more marked degree, thus pointing to the closer 

 serological relationship of this bacillus to hog-cholera than to yellow 

 fever. 



Morphology of the Plague Bacillus and Transmission of the 

 Bacterium by the Fleas of Mice and Rats.* — Prof. B. Galli- Valeric > 

 calls attention to the likeness existing between the form and shape of 

 many of the elements of B. pestis and B. mallei. These forms, usually 

 called involution, rather suggest that the development of the plague 

 bacillus is analogous to that of the glanders bacillus. 



With regard to the transmission of plague by rats and mice, the 

 author remarks that we should be careful about assigning to rats an 

 almost exclusive part in the dissemination of plague, more especially as 

 such a view might draw attention from other more important causes of 

 infection, such as the transmission from man to man or from inanimate 

 objects. 



The author's view is founded on the negative effects on his own 

 person from the presence of rat and mouse fleas. On this ground he 

 contests the validity of the conclusions of Simond and Leloir, and 

 points out that these savants do not make any statement as to the kind 

 of insects they had to deal with. 



Behaviour of Anthrax in the Peritoneal Sac.f — Dr. J. B. van Leent 

 found that anthrax, when injected, even in enormous numbers, into the 

 peritoneal sac of guinea-pigs, perished. Immunity to anthrax was not 

 thereby imparted. Even when the animal is dying from subcutaneous 

 injection, the peritoneum can kill the microbes. While the absorption 

 of the bacilli is dangerous for the infected organism, the absorption of 

 peritoneal fluid may be favourable. The bactericidal influence of the 

 peritoneum may be impaired by foreign bodies, by excess of fluid, or by 

 a combination of both. Migratory cells have no great influence on 

 the bacteria, and no marked phagocytosis is to be observed in these 

 elements. The endothelial cells, however, undoubtedly perform phago- 

 cytic functions. The peritoneal fluid does not appear to exert a bacte- 

 ricidal action. 



Bibliography. 

 Curtis, H. J. — Essentials of Practical Bacteriology. 



Longmans, 1900, 8vo, 308 pp. 

 K locker, A. — Die Gahrungsorganismen in der Theorie una Praxis der Alcohol- 

 gahrungsgewerbe. Mit besonderer Berucksichtigung der Einrichtungen und 

 Arbeiten gahrungsphysiologischer und gahrungstechnischer Laboratorien. 



Stuttgart, 1900, 8vo, 318 pp., 147 figs. 

 Levy, L— Microbes et Distillerie. Paris, 1900, vi. and 323 pp. 



M i gula, W. — A. de Bary's Vorlesungen uber Bacterien. 



3 Aufl., Leipzig, 1900, 8vo, 186 pp., 41 figs. 

 Oppenheimer, C. — Die Fermente und ihre Wirkungen. Leipzig, 1900. 



• Centralbl. Bakt, 1" Abt,, xxviii. (1900) pp. 842-5 (1 fig.). 

 t Tom. cit., pp. 737-42. 



