ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 603 



Alinit.* — C. Sclmlze states that the alinit bacillus requires organic 

 nitrogenous matter for its growth, and fails to devolop in non-nitro- 

 genous solutions. Wheat was grown in pots containing a mixture of 

 (a) Ellenbach soil and ground sandstone, (&) sandstone and dextrose 

 Three sets of pots were used for each experiment which had been : — 



(1) Sterilised and inoculated with a pure culture of the alinit bacillut.. 



(2) Sterilised but not inoculated. 



(3) Neither sterilised nor inoculated. 



At the conclusion of the experiments it was found that although all 

 the pots contained moulds and extraneous bacteria, the alinit bacillus 

 predominated. No fixation of free nitrogen had taken place and there 

 was a distinct loss of nitrogen. Similar results were obtained in pots 

 exposed to air. Negative results were also obtained in a second set of 

 experiments to determine the effects of carbohydrates, and in field ex- 

 periments with barley and oats. 



Gas Vacuoles in Thiothrix j — Wille after rewring to Wino- 

 gradsky's definitions of the groups Beggiatoa and Thiothrix, describes 

 his own observations on the Thiothrix tenuis Winogr. which he ob- 

 tained in September 1901, associated with a felted mass of Vaucheria. 

 In this Thiothrix he observed that the bodies usually described as 

 sulphur granules had all the optical appearances of bubbles of air or 

 gas, e.g. they possessed dark edges and the central portions were reddish 

 in tint, — appearances totally unlike those produced by the refraction of 

 light from solid particles : furthermore, on warming the preparation 

 these bodies disappeared at a temperature much below the melting- 

 point of sulphur. On running in caustic potash under the cover-glass 

 of this preparation, the walls of the Thiothrix became more transparent 

 and the enclosed vacuoles stood out more sharply, and in some situations 

 two or more coalesced, showing that the vacuoles did not contain CO.,, 

 which would have been absorbed by the caustic. The application of a 

 solution of picric acid to the Thiothrix did not cause the formation of 

 sulphur crystals, but a few of the vacuoles ran together and coalesced, 

 although not to the same extent as occurred on the addition of potash. 

 Lead acetate did not yield a precipitate of lead sulphide, nor did the 

 vacuoles disappear. Iodine and iodide of potash solution had no effect; 

 on the addition, however, of iodine and alcohol or alcohol alone, the 

 gas vacuoles disappeared very quickly and completely and the threads 

 of the Thiothrix became smaller in diameter. At this point unfor- 

 tunately the Thiothrix was lost as a result of an accident to the glass 

 containing the mixed Vaucheria and Thiothrix. 



Handbook of Bacteriology and Pathology.} — This little book is 

 intended for the use of students preparing for the practical part of the 

 third examination for the Doctorate of Medicine. It is obvious, hoaever, 

 that it is impossible to do more than give the salient points of each 

 subject in a small book which only occupies 235 pages in summarising 



* Bied. Centralbl., xxxi. (1902) pp. 145-7. See Journ. Chem. Soc, Abstr. ii. 

 lxxxii. (1902) p. 344. 



t Biol. Centralbl., xxii. (1902) pp. 257-62. 



t Petit et Borne, Manuel pratique de Bacteriologie, Parasitologic Lrolo.^ie et 

 Anatomie Pathologirpie, Paris, O. Naud, 1902, crown Svo, 235 pp. and 47 figs. 



