ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 361 



often collected into ovoid masses resembling spores ; pepton-broth is 

 clouded after three days, and has a viscid yellow deposit ; gelatin is not 

 liquefied ; growth on potato is visible after 24 hours, and develops 

 into a citron-yellow band, smooth at the centre, but granular and 

 irregular at the edges ; in pepton-water nitrates are reduced to 

 nitrites, and in broth there is a slight production of gas ; indol is not 

 formed ; urea is unaltered, and there is no fermentation of glucose, 

 maltose, or lactose ; milk is peptonised to a clear yellow liquid with 

 sediment. 



The organism is distinct from the " bacille seborrheique " and from 

 the Coccus butyricus of Sabouraud, though it resembles Ascobacterium 

 of Babes. 



Etiology of Mycetoma.* — W. E. Musgrave and M. T. Clegg have 

 isolated from a case of Mycetoma a Streptothrix organism (S. freeri). 

 It is an essential aerobe and grows on ordinary media, but especially well 

 on those containing sugar, and on potato at 37° C. ; on alkaline litmus 

 milk growth occurs on the surface as dry, flat particles, which become 

 confluent and form a heaped-up yellow mass, a tenacious sediment 

 being deposited ; the milk is not coagulated, and there is no formation 

 of acid, but the medium is slowly decolorised ; the growth on potato 

 has a pink to yellow colour ; when grown on gelatin the medium is not 

 liquefied. The organism stains by the ordinary dyes, and also by the 

 methods of Grain- Weigert and Ziehl-Nielsen-Gabbet ; some specimens 

 show fragmentation, and when stained by the last named method they 

 present a close resemblance to the tubercle bacillus. A number of 

 animals developed the lesions of Mycetorna after intra-peritoneal 

 inoculation ; three typical examples of Madura foot developed in 

 monkeys after injection of the organism into the foot. The authors 

 consider this organism to be distinct both from the S. machine of 

 Vincent and from the organism described by Wright, and conclude that 

 Madura foot is probably produced by any one of several species of 

 Streptothrix. 



" La Graisse " in Wines.f — E. Kayser and E. Manceau recognise 

 two ferments as the cause of " La graisse." The microbes that produce 

 the one have been previously described : they multiply readily on 

 peptonised sugar media, they are resistant to acids, and attack hevulose 

 more rapidly than other sugars ; those of the second group are also 

 short bacilli, arranged in long and twisted chains ; peptonised liquids 

 are not suitable for their growth, they are less resistant to acids, and 

 they act more vigorously on glucose than on the other sugars. The 

 authors find that certain aerobes play an important role in the diseases 

 of wine, not only by facilitating the development of the anaerobic 

 organisms of " la graisse," but also because they form true associations 

 with these germs, and can thereby modify the preference of the ferments 

 for certain sugars. Among these aerobes were found yeasts, mycoderma. 

 a bacillus, two varieties of cocci, and a sarcina, which have already been 

 described as causing the " bleu " of champagnes. 



* Philippine Journ. Sci., ii. (1907) p. 477. 

 t Comptes Rendus, cxlvi. (1908) p. 92. 



