ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, .MICROSCOPY, ETC. 375 



Cultivation of the Tubercle Bacillus upon Animal Tissues. t — 

 C. Frugoni found that' portions of the organs of animals, suitably pre- 

 pared, form an excellent medium for the cultivation of tubercle. Pris- 

 matic pieces of the lungs of rabbits and dogs were heated for 45 minutes 

 in an autoclave, and then placed for two hours in 6 to 8 p.c. gly- 

 cerinated water. They were then put in sterilised tubes, containing a 

 small quantity of glycerin and water to prevent drying. The tissue is 

 kept away from the glycerin bath by means of a constriction of the tube 

 upon which it rests. Upon such a medium the growth of Bacillus tuber- 

 culosis takes place very rapidly, and the culture possesses great vitality. 

 This method is likely to be of great use for the isolation of the bacillus 

 from tuberculous tissues. 



Comparative Value of recent Typhoid Culture-media.} — W. Gaeht- 

 gens and CI. Bruckner, in the examination of a hundred stools, mostly 

 from typhoid patients, employed the following media : Conradi's brilliant- 

 green picric acid agar, Padlewsky's sodium sulphite malachite-green agar, 

 Endo's fuchsin agar, Werbitzki's china-green agar, Gaehtgen's caffein- 

 fuchsin agar, and the malachite-green agar of Lentz and Tietz. They 

 found that the medium of Lentz and Tietz was the most satisfactory, 

 and for rapid differentiation of the Bacillus typhosus fuchsin agar most 

 suitable. By means of these new media it was possible to isolate the 

 bacillus in 50 p.c. of cases in the first fortnight of the disease, and in 

 75 p.c. of cases in the first three weeks. This shows that examination of 

 the fasces in the diagnosis of typhoid is no less valuable than agglutina- 

 tion tests or blood culture. 



Cultivation of Oidium albicans from Throats.*— From swabbings 

 of the throats of 300 cases of suspected diphtheria, Heidsieck was able 

 to isolate Oidium albicans in thirteen. The organism was encountered, 

 also, in a number of other cases where the overgrowth of bacteria made 

 isolation impossible. From blood serum, the dull white colonies of 

 0. albicans were transplanted on to beet- wort gelatin. On this medium 

 the colonies were at first round, sharply defined, and of a brownish 

 colour. After a few days, thread-like processes were found projecting 

 from the colony, some radially, some tangentially. The author compares 

 the cultural characters of this organism with those of Saccharomyces cere- 

 visise and S. ellipsoideus. Experiments were also carried out with a view 

 to ascertaining the pathogenicity of this yeast, and comparing it with 

 that of other yeasts and moulds. 



(2) Preparing Objects- 



New Method of Fixing Plankton.f — L. Meunier and C. Yaney 

 have used for two years a 2-4 per thousand solution of qui none for fixing 

 plankton. The compounds formed by the reagent with albuminous sub- 

 stances are more stable than those obtained by means of formalin or 

 the chromic acid salts. After a lapse of time certain structures stain 

 brown ; this browning facilitates the identification of the parts affected, 



* Centralbl. Bakt., lte Abt. Orig., liii. (1910) pp. 553-7. 



f Tom. cit., pp. 559-76. 



X Op. cit., liv. (1910) pp. 108-14. 



§ C.R Soc. Biol. Paris, lxviii. (1910) pp. 727-9. 



