94 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



Jdhne's Bacillus.*— F. W. Twort has succeeded in isolating and 

 cultivating the acid-fast bacillus found in the intestine of cows in 

 Jdhne's disease. The first generation of this bacillus grows long, with 

 branching and club formation. In subcultures it is smaller ; being, in 

 the second or third generations, about the size of B. tuberculosis. The 

 growth is only just visible to the naked eye. The cultures were incu- 

 bated at 40° C. 



Enzymes in Different Bacteria. t — E. Abderbalden, L. Pincussohn, 

 and A. Walther find the culture fluids of a paratyphoid -like bacillus and 

 of Streptococcus pleuro-pneumoniee have no peptolytic action on various 

 kinds of peptone. Bacillus paratyphus slightly decomposes casein peptone. 

 Various bacilli were grown in different media with and without peptone, 

 and the change in the rotary power noted. It is hoped that this method, 

 of which a few preliminary examples are given, may be utilized in the 

 differentiation of micro-organisms. 



Action of Dysentery Bacilli on Nitrites and Nitrates.}— W. J. 

 Logie remarks that all the dysentery strains examined, with one excep- 

 tion {Bacillus Neisser, etc.), reduced nitrates to nitrites ; none which fail 

 to ferment mannitol destroyed nitrites. B. dysenteries Jiirgens, although 

 closely related to B. dysenteries Flexner, differs from it in its action on 

 litmus whey, and in failing to destroy nitrite. B. dysenteries Jiirgens 

 is the only strain found to form indol, and therefore to give the cholera- 

 red reaction. The addition of dextrose enables Shiga strains to destroy 

 nitrites. With an abundant supply of oxygen, all the strains fail to 

 destroy nitrites and nitrates, but in media which contain dextrose the 

 inhibitory effect of oxygen is less marked. Under anaerobic conditions, 

 Shiga strains and B. dysenteries Jiirgens still fail to destroy nitrites. 



Intestinal Flora.§ — E. Metchnikoff, in a second memoir on intestinal 

 bacteria || discusses the effect of the toxins on the organism, and comes 

 to the conclusion that sclerosis of tissues, e.g. of arteries, is often the 

 result of the absorption of these poisons. 



Fowlbb, G. J., E. Abderk, & W. T. L ockbtt.— Oxidation of Phenol by 

 certain Baoteria in pure oulture. 



Proc. Boy. Soc, lxxxiii. (1910) pp. 149-56. 



* Proc. Roy. Soc, lxxxiii. (1910) p. 158. 



t Zeitschr. Physiol. Chem., lxviii. (1910) pp. 471-6, through Journ. Chem. 

 Soc, xcvii. and xcviii. (1910) ii., 989. 



X J. Hygiene (1910) pp. 143-54, through Journ. Chem. Soc, xcvii. and xcvin. 

 (1910) ii., 988. 



§ Ann. Inst. Pasteur, xxiv. (1910) pp. 755-70 (3 pis.). 



|| See this Journal, 1909, p. 236. 



