600 STJMMAKY OF CURRENT RESEAKCHES RELATING TO 



Cultivations from the depths of the tumour gave rise to cultivations 

 of a non-motile coccus occurring in pairs and in staphylococcus-!.^ e 

 masses, individual elements measuring from 0*6 to • 8 /x. Occasionally 

 zoogloea formation is noticed. The coccus stains well with anilin dyes 

 and al*o by Gram. In gelatin plates at 20° C. yellowish-orange colonies 

 appear in 24 hours which liquefy the gelatin ; in gelatin stabs growth 

 takes place on the surface and in the depths, liquefaction proceeds in 

 the shape of a cone, and the entire contents of the tube are liquefied in 

 about 17 days. It grows well upon agar at 37° C, and on inspissated 

 ox-serum without liquefying the medium. A golden-coloured layer 

 appears upon potato, and in broth at 37° C. pellicle formation is ob- 

 served in 24 to 48 hours, with universal turbidity and considerable 

 yellowish deposit at the bottom of the tube after 3 days. No indol 

 formation occurs : milk is coagulated in 4 days. 



Of two guinea-pigs inoculated subcutaueously with broth cultiva- 

 tions, one died in less than 48 hours ; in this case the post-mortem 

 appearances resembled those produced by inoculation with the B. 

 a attracts, with the exception that the staphylococcus was recovered from 

 the heart blood. The other guinea-pig suffered from a local abscess, the 

 pus being crowded with the cocci, but the author does not state that the 

 animal succumbed. A grey rat inoculated subcutaueously died in 48 

 hours with sero-haunorrhagic exudation at the site of inoculation, the 

 cocci being present in its heart blood. Inoculations of rabbits and 

 guinea-pigs with portions of the excised tumour provoked local suppu- 

 ration which apparently did not produce death. In summarising his 

 observations the author states that there exists among animals and in 

 man an affection known by the name of botryomycosis, in which is found 

 a micrococcus that occasionally presents slight differences from the typical 

 form of the Staphylococcus pyogenes aureus. 



Bacterium phasianicida.* — E. Klein describes a new species 

 belonging to the hemorrhagic septicasinia group, which he considers 

 responsible for a severe and fatal epidemic among the pheasants on an 

 English game-farm. He describes the lesions observed in the birds 

 post-mortem. 



Post-mortem examination of the bodies of the birds shows injected 

 intestines, enlarged dark red spleen, engorged liver, with haemorrhage 

 in the capsule and on the surface, the heart-cavities filled with coagu- 

 lated blood. Smear preparations of the blood show small numbers of 

 short oval bacilli ; preparations from the spleen, however, are found to 

 be crowded with the bacilli. They correspond in size to those of 

 chicken cholera, and resemble them further in taking up the ordinary 

 anilin dyes most deeply at the poles, and in not retaining the stain 

 when treated by Gram's method. Surface colonies on plates resemble 

 those of members of the Coli group. On gelatin it grows more quickly 

 than the bacillus of fowl cholera ; it produces a thin colourless layer 

 on potato ; the bacillus does not liquefy gelatin, form acid, produce 

 indol or gas, and does not coagulate milk. 



Inoculation experiments show that the chicken and the guinea-pig 

 are insusceptible to infection by the bacillus. Rabbits die about 48 hours 



* Ccntralbl. Bakt., l t0 Abt., xxxi. (1902; pp. 76-7. 





