092 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



with rounded ends ; frequently in pairs and occasionally in chains. On 

 o-elatin the growth is grey or yellowish. On agar the colonies are raised 

 and greyish white. Bouillon becomes turbid with a moderate amount of 

 sediment. Milk is quickly coagulated. In grape-sugar bouillon there 

 is copious formation of CO.,. On potato the growth is luxuriant and of 

 a brownish-yellow colour. In pepton there is copious production of 

 H 9 S, and a positive nitroso-indol reaction. It is actively motile, and 

 does not stain by Gram's method. 



Streptothrix from the Pathogenic Action of Bacillus Pseudo-tuber- 

 culosis Murium.* — Dorothy M. Eeed, who has studied the spontaneous 

 and experimental aspects of the pseudo-tuberculosis in animals, concludes 

 that several different bacteria are engaged in the process, but that 

 rodents are specially liable to such forms of tuberculosis. The bacillus 

 described by Kutscher, and the one previously isolated by Welch, are 

 identical. Experimental production of the natural disease in mice can 

 be accomplished by injections of pure cultures of the bacilli, but the 

 only certain methods are inoculation into the pleural and peritoneal 

 cavities. The pseudo-tubercles consist essentially of colonies of bacteria, 

 and to a small extent only of proliferated and emigrated body-cells. 

 The propriety of the denomination pseudo-tuberculosis is therefore open 

 to question. The bacilli occur in the form of simple and of branching 

 rods. The branching is observed in growths in the animal body and in 

 those in artificial cultures. The bacillus closely resembles culturally 

 and morphologically the Klebs-Loeffler bacillus. The colonies on serous 

 membranes have a rough resemblance to Actinomyces Drusen. 



Pseudotetanus Bacillus.f— J. B. Bain isolated from a blank cartridge 

 wound a bacillus which had much resemblance to B. tetani, and like it 

 was an essential anaerobe. The organism is a bacillus with rounded 

 ends, and produces a spore at one pole. The spores were most abundant 

 in blood-serum cultures. The bacillus possesses numerous flagella, but 

 no movements were observed. It was cultivated successfully on blood- 

 sernm and glucose-agar and in bouillon. Its length is very variable, 

 and its average thickness • 5 /x. It is decolorised by Gram's method, 

 is not pathogenic to guinea-pigs, and does not liquefy gelatin. 



Pseudopneumococcus.J — O. Bichardson describes an organism which 

 has been met with four times in pneumonic lungs. Though having 

 many resemblances to pneumococcus, it differs therefrom in the follow- 

 ing particulars. The capsules persist in cultures ; on blood-serum the 

 colonies are much larger than those of pneumococcus cultivated under 

 the same conditions, and are entirely different in character. They may 

 become confluent, and form a mucus-like scum, which the colonies of 

 pneumococcus never do. In glucose-agar stab cultures the growths are 

 quite unlike, and on gelatin at room temperature the development of the 

 pseudococcus is almost luxuriant and that of pneumococcus scanty. 



Micrococcus zymogenes.§— Dr. N. M. Harris and Dr. \V. T. Long- 

 cope record five instances of the occurrence of ilf. zymogenes. The de- 



* Johns Hopkins Hosp. Rep., ix. (1900) pp. 525-41 (1 pi.). 



t Journ. Boston Soe. Med. Sci., v. (1901) pp. 500-10 (2 pis.). 



X Tom. cit., pp. 499-505 (2 pis.). 



§ Centralbl. Bakt., l te Abt., xxx. (1901) pp. 353-6. Cf. this Journal, 1899, p. 320. 



