ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 349 



They applied the test to different strains of the tubercle bacillus, 

 one isolated by themselves from the sputum of a phthisical patient, and 

 another obtained from Courmont, which had been cultivated for a long 

 period upon artificial media. This latter they found had become practi- 

 cally non-pathogenic for the guinea-pig. 



The authors tested the serum from 73 subjects, 41 of whom were 

 suffering from some form of tuberculosis, 29 from diseases other than 

 tuberculosis, and 3 normal individuals. The results were so contra- 

 dictory and unreliable that the authors do not consider the test of any 

 value in the early diagnosis of tuberculosis. 



Miquel and Cambier's Bacteriology.*— P. Miquel and E. Cambier 

 have combined to produce an exhaustive treatise on Bacteriology, some- 

 what similar in its arrangement to that manual by Sternberg which has 

 long been a standard work in all English-speaking countries. The 

 volume is divided into four parts, of which the first, consisting of 

 238 pages, is devoted to the morphology and biology of bacteria and 

 methods of investigation and technique in general. The second part 

 contains a systematic description of pathogenic bacteria in about 330 

 pages, whilst the third, of equal size, describes the saprophytic bacteria. 

 The final section is concerned with bacterioscopic analyses and the 

 application of bacteriology to hygiene, and is limited to 150 pages. 



The classification of bacteria which the authors have adopted is a 

 good working one, viz. that of Cohn, although we note with regret that 

 the term Leptothrix is retained to designate such of the bacilli as occur 

 in long non-motile threads, a connection in which we hoped the word 

 had become obsolete, instead of restricting it as a generic term for a 

 definite group of the higher bacteria ; again, Prodigiosus is spoken of 

 as a Micrococcus, although most workers now prefer to class this micro- 

 organism as a bacillus. The details of the technique adopted in the 

 study of the structure and functions of bacteria in geueral are precise 

 and the methods themselves for the most part effective, though fewer 

 are mentioned than we should have anticipated in a work of this magni- 

 tude, and some apparently can only be carried out by the aid of expen- 

 sive and cumbersome apparatus. 



In view of the increasing importance that is attached, and rightly so, 

 to the preparation of nutrient media, it is somewhat startling to find it 

 stated that nutrient broth should be neutralised with a solution of caustic 

 soda or carbonate of soda until it gives a faintly alkaline reaction, no 

 advice whatever being given as to the most convenient strength of the 

 neutralising solution to employ, nor is the indicator even mentioned. 

 Further, we are told that the sterilisation of nutrient media, such as 

 gelatin and agar, by the discontinuous method (of Tyndall), although 

 " seductive in theory," is unsafe in practice and should be replaced by 

 steaming in the autoclave, under pressure, at a temperature of 105° to 

 110° C. 



In the second and third parts the descriptions of the various patho- 

 genic and saprophytic bacteria are accurate and sound so far as they go, 

 but we are surprised to find that notes of the cultural characteristics 



* Traite de Bacte'riologie, pure et appliquee a la Me'decine et a l'Hygiene' 

 P. Miquel et R. Cambier, Paris (C. Naud), 1902, crown 4to, 1059 pp. and 224 figs, in 

 the text. 



June 18th, 1902 2 a 



