ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 803 



potential anaerobe. Is pathogenic to tropical orchids, entering chiefly 

 through wounds. Careful washing with 1 : 1000 sublimate effects a cure. 

 The author discusses its relations to other bacteria, and concludes that it 

 is a new species. 



Bacterium tumefaciens.* — E. F. Smith directs attention to the 

 resemblances between " crown-gall," an affection of plants, and ma- 

 lignant animal tumors, especially sarcoma. It is inoculable on healthy 

 plants, reproducing the disease. In the tumors, both primary and those 

 obtained by artificial inoculation, a bacterial organism, Bacterium tume- 

 faciens, is present. This can be isolated and cultivated, and the pure 

 cultures reproduce the disease on inoculation. 



Bacterium briosianum.f — G. L. Pavarino describes a new organism, 

 which attacks Vanilla planifolia. Morphologically it is a very small 

 rodlet ; it stains well, but not by Gram's method. It grows well on the 

 usual media ; it liquefies gelatin, and forms a scum on broth ; a deposit 

 is formed later, the liquid turning green. 



Anaerobic Streptothrix.J — Kurt Meyer isolated from empyema pus 

 a Gram-positive Streptotltrix. It was very selective as to diet and en- 

 vironment, being cultivable only under anaerobic conditions, and on 

 media which contained grape-sugar and ascitic fluid. 



Penetration of the Normal Skin by Tubercle Bacilli. § — H. 

 Koenigsfeld records observations and experiments which seem to show 

 that tubercle bacilli can enter the body through the cutaneous surface by 

 way of the hair follicles and lymph spaces. The infection became more 

 or less generalized, though the site of inoculation (effected by rubbing 

 after shaving, epilation, or cutting off the hairs) showed no local change. 

 Previous experiments by other observers are freely recorded, and a 

 copious bibliography is appended. 



Artificial Production of a permanently atypical Bacillus coli.|| 

 C. Revis found a strain of Bacillus coli which, when cultivated in the 

 presence of malachite-green, grew quite strongly. After fifteen sub- 

 cultivations this strain was found to have undergone marked change in 

 its physiological properties : its power to produce gas being almost com- 

 pletely lost, while acid only was produced in identically the same media 

 as originally. As shown by other tests, this organism had suffered no 

 loss of vitality. 



Parasite of Rabies and Plasmodiophora brassicse.^f — G. Polacci 

 records some observations which indicate the morphological and bio- 

 logical affinity of Plasmodiophora brassicse and Negri's bodies. There 

 are, however, no allusions to experiments made on animals with the 

 Plasmodiophora. 



* Bureau Plant Industry U.S.A.. Dept. Agric, Circ. No. 85 (1911). See also 

 Nature, lxxxvii. (1911) p. 371. 



t Atti R. Accad. Lincei, xx. (1911) pp. 161-2. 



\ Centralbl. Bakt., 1^ Abt. Ori^., lx. (1911) pp. 75-8 (2 figs.). 



§ Centralbl. Bakt., lte Abt. Orig., lx. (1911) pp. 28-68 (3 figs.). 



il Centralbl. Bakt., 2te Abt., xxxi. (1911) pp. 1-4. 



1 Atti R. Accad. Lincei, xx. (1911) pp. 218-22. 



