ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 575 



Sections made by treating the material with formalin and imbedding 

 in celloidin showed a perfect regularity in the structure of the colony. 

 The pigment varied with the age of the colony, being white at first, 

 then developing a brown pigment which gradually lost colour. The 

 superficial colonies were never brown, but at most were yellowish. In 

 later stages crystals of triple phosphate were observed. 



Vibrio bresmiae. * — R. Greig Smith isolated from a dead bream a 

 bacterium which is pathogenic to fish. It is a rodlet with rounded ends, 

 ranging from 0* 45-0* 7 jx in breadth and from 1*2-1 '5 //, in length. 

 In the animal tissues it has a distinct capsule. It stains well, is actively 

 motile, and has a polar flagellum lr>-3 times the length of the cell. It 

 liquefies gelatin, the growth-deposit being white. On agar the super- 

 ficial colonies are white, the deeper ones yellowish-brown. Bouillon be- 

 comes turbid, and after the lapse of seven days a slight indol reaction 

 is obtainable. It reduces nitrate to nitrite ; in litmus-milk the casein is 

 partly dissolved and partly precipitated, while the litmus is first 

 reddened and finally bleached. The vibrio grows better at 22° than 

 at 37°. It is a preferential aerobe and a potential anaerobe. It does 

 not produce phosphorescence when cultivated in sea-water media or on 

 fish-muscle. The author designates the bacterium by the name Vibrio 

 bresmiae (low Latin Bresmia, bream). 



Action of Grass Bacillus ii. on Cold-blooded Animals.f — Dr. Frey- 

 muth found that by injecting grass bacillus ii. Moeller into the peri- 

 toneal sac of frogs, appearances resembling those of true tuberculosis 

 were produced. The nodules were found to contain numerous acid-fast 

 bacteria. An interesting point mentioned is that this grass bacillus, 

 which in agar culture is quite different from tubercle bacillus, exhibited 

 branchings after an eight days' sojourn in the peritoneal sac of frogs, 

 and became indistinguishable from the true tubercle bacillus. This is 

 contrasted with the result obtained after injecting fish tubercle, which 

 culturally resembles true tubercle, into the peritoneal sac of toads. In 

 eight days this organism presented appearances resembling the coccus 

 form of Moeller's organism. 



Bacillus Gangraenae Pulpae. — Prof. J. Arkovy $ makes some addi- 

 tions and corrections to a previous communication on B. gangraenae 

 pulpae, the characters of which are now described as follows. This 

 bacterium is a bacillus with rounded ends which, by means of peri- 

 trichous flagella, is endowed with lively movements. It forms large 

 oval centrally placed spores which are very resistant to external in- 

 fluences. The bacilli germinate through an equatorial rent in the 

 spore-membrane. After moving about for a variable length of time, 

 they pass into a resting condition and form filaments. The bacillus 

 is an aerobe, and grows but slowly under anaerobic conditions. It is 

 stained by Gram's method. B. gangraenae pulpae is allied in some 

 respects to the group of hay bacilli, and in others to the group of 

 potato bacilli, but is not identical with any hitherto described species. 



Dr. J. Madzsar § records experiments on the resistance of the spores 



* Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales, xxv. (1900) pp. 605-9. 

 t Centralbl. Bakt., l te Abt., xxix. (1901) pp. 530-1. 

 X Tom. cit., pp. 745-51. Cf. this Journal, 1898, p. 579. 

 § Tom. cit., pp. 751-5. 



