88 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



bean-like diplococci, or as single cocci, chiefly inclosed in the lencocytee 

 of the exudate ; it is an obligate aerobe ; it grows best on agar contain- 

 ing ascitic fluid ; the author found that nutrose ascitic agar (" nasgar ") 

 was specially suitable ; it also grows well in broth to which 10 p.c. fresh 

 sterile ascitic fluid has been added, and in this medium it lives longer 

 (up to a fortnight) than on solid media ; it is killed by a temperature of 

 65° C. for 30 minutes. The colonies formed on nasgar, in strong con- 

 trast to colonies of Gram-positive cocci, after 24 hours at 37° C, appear 

 as smooth, translucent, regular, circular, or oval disks, resembling young 

 colonies of B. coli ; the optimum temperature of growth is 36-87° C. ; 

 growth is arrested at 42° C. ; and at 25° C. its pathogenic action is 

 exerted by an endotoxin. 



Serum of patients suffering from the disease agglutinated the coccus 

 in dilutions of 1 in 10 to 1 in 100, and some cases up to a dilution of 

 1 in 400, but the commencement of the agglutination reaction bears no 

 definite relation to the onset of the disease. 



The reactions of the meningococcus and other Gram-negative cocci 

 to glucose, galactose, maltose, and saccharose, are given in a table, and 

 the results show the value of these reactions in differentiating the 

 meningococcus from the other Gram-negative cocci liable to occur in the 

 upper respiratory passages. 



The organism has also been isolated from the blood, from nasal 

 secretion, and saliva, and has been located in the middle ear, in joints, 

 and in the eye when inflamed during the disease. 



Its detection in the secretion of the upper respiratory passages is im- 

 portant as indicating the route by which infection has been acquired, or 

 is imparted to others ; but the identification is difficult owing to the 

 presence of other Gram-negative cocci from which the meningococcus 

 has to be differentiated by cultivation. 



New Plague Prophylactic* — E. Klein has prepared from the 

 necrotic nodules of the bubo or other affected organs, a plague prophy- 

 lactic material of uniform value, and which is readily standardised and 

 preserved. The author claims that by using bacillary masses from the 

 animal direct, a material is secured of greater uniformity and activity 

 than that obtained from artificial medium, and that since the specific 

 toxin produced by the microbe is presumably stored up in the organs of 

 the animal dying of plague, it might be possible by injecting into the 

 animals subfatal doses of this tissue toxin, to confer on them an 

 immunity against B. pestis. As the result of numerous experiments 

 with material obtained from the raw or the heated filtrate of emulsion of 

 dried plague organs, it appeared that appropriate doses injected into rats, 

 were protective in as short a period as seven days, and persisted for 

 many weeks. 



Micrococcus producing a Yellow-brown Colour on Cheese. t — H. 

 Huss describes the morphological and cultural characters of a micro- 

 coccus isolated from a cheese, the rind of which was stained a yellow- 

 brown colour by the organism. The cheese affected had come from a 



* Bep. Med. Officer Local Govt. Board, 1905-6, p. 392. 

 t Centralbl. Bakt , 2te Abt., xiv. (1907) p 518. 



