86 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



Schizophy ta. 

 Schizomycetes. 



Bacillus arenicolse.*— H. B. Fantham and Annie Porter have found 

 in the gut of Arenicola ecaudata a bacillus which damages the gut and 

 may hasten the death of the Annelid. The bacillus is from 7-17 /x long 

 by • 7-1 ■ 3 /a broad, averaging 11 /x by 1 ft. Internally it shows many 

 darkly staining granules, often arranged in the form of transverse bars. 

 These granules are probably composed of chromatin. The authors 

 think that a nucleus exists in the form of a chromidial system. Some 

 of the colorable granules are refringent and probably consist of meta- 

 chromatin. The cytoplasm stains with difficulty, while the periplast 

 stains deeply. Division is by transverse septation. B. arenicolse forms 

 one terminal spore. 



Granules of Plague Bacilli. f— F. Vay states that in plague bacilli 

 cultivated artificially granules are demonstrable which are extremely 

 like in shape, position and general appearance bodies which have been 

 described as nuclei. They are not fat inclusions, and are not de- 

 monstrable in bacteria found in the animal body. 



Media which Attenuate or Exalt the Virulence of Tubercle 

 Bacilli. :f — Baudran, by cultivating B. tuberculosis on a medium com- 

 posed of glycerophosphate of iron 0'2, metaphosphate of soda 5, citrate 

 of soda 2, glycerin 60, albumoses Byla 10, distilled water 1000, obtained 

 a growth in which the bacilli were much attenuated, of dumb-bell 

 shape, and staining feebly only at the ends. The pathogenic effect on 

 animals was almost nil. When the iron was replaced by a similar 

 quantity of phosphate of manganese the morphological and tinctorial 

 characters were similar, but animals injected with the toxin or the 

 bacilli rapidly succumbed. 



Spirochseta eurygyrata and S. stenogyrata.§ — H. Werner dis- 

 covered in human fasces two Spirochetes, one with broad, the other 

 with narrow turns of the spirals. 8. eurygyrata varies 4-i;-7-:> /x ; the 

 turns are broad and thick. The length of S. stenogyrata is from 

 3"5-6"l Li : the turns are much finer and closer than in S. eurygyrata. 

 Apparently they are not identical with Spirochetes found in the mouth, 

 and are probably very common habitants of the human alimentary canal. 



Microbes on Fruit.j|— A. Sartory and A. Filassier call attention to 

 the possibility of the transmission of disease by raw fruit, e.g. grapes. 

 strawberries, and gooseberries. The principal species detected were 

 Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus, B. termo, B. subtilis, M. candicans, 

 Penkillitim glaucum, Rhizopus nigricans. 



Actinomyces of the Cornea. If— B. Namyslowski describes two 



Actinomycetes obtained from the human cornea, the species being 



• Centralbl. Bakt., lte Abt. Orig., Hi. (1009) pp. 329-34 (1 pi.). 

 t Tom. cit., pp. 305-18 (1 pi.). 

 X Cornptos Rendus, cxlix. (1909) pp. 874-5. 

 § Centralbl. Bakt., lte Abt. Orig., lii. (1909) pp. 241-3 (1 pi.). 

 II O.K. Soc. Biol. Paris, i xv ii. (iy09) pp. 445-7. 

 ^f Bull. Internat. Acad. Sci. Cracovie, 1909, pp. 418-27 (1 pi.). 



