244 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



Schizophy ta. 

 Schizomycetes. 



Oxidizing and Reducing Properties of Bacteria.* — W. II . Schultze 

 has devised tests for investigating these properties. To show reduction, he 

 uses a mixture of 1 p.c. solution of a-tiaphthol and paranitroso-dimethyl- 

 amine. This is mixed with nutrient agar, and the mixture is plated. 

 The medium is of a yellow colour. Now by means of a platinum loop 

 inoculated with a suitable organism strokes are made over the surface of 

 this plate, and in a few minutes blue or bluish-green lines appear. 

 Staphylococcus pyogenes aureus gives the reaction in one minute. 



Similarly, to demonstrate oxidation, agar plates are used to which 

 have been added a mixture of a-naphthol and dimethyl-paraphenylen- 

 diamine, one part of the mixture to three of agar. If strokes from cultures 

 of a suitable bacterium be made on this plate, a deep-blue colour will 

 appear very rapidly. With Bacillus pyocyaneus a reaction is obtained 

 in ten seconds. B. fluoresce?) s capsulatus gives a reaction in fifteen 

 seconds. If the organisms which give this reaction are examined micro- 

 scopically, it is found that vital staining of bacterial granules has taken 

 place. 



Chlorine Method of Water-purification. f—L. C. Walker, in a paper 

 read before the Association of Water Engineers, advocates the use of a 

 new system of purifying water by means of chlorine. This process in- 

 volves the automatic addition of chlorine to the water, a contact period 

 between water and chlorine, and lastly the total elimination of the chlorine 

 after it has fulfilled its functions of destroying the bacteria. After some 

 preliminary treatment, the water is pumped into a De-Clor filter. The 

 upper part of this filter serves as contact chamber for water and chlorine. 

 The chlorine, in the form of a weak suspension of chloride of lime, is 

 pumped in from a tank. After thirty minutes contact, the water passes 

 to the filter proper, the lower part of the structure. This is composed 

 of three layers, a layer of granulated carbon 20 in. thick between two 

 layers of specially graded silica. The carbon acts upon the free chlorine, 

 converting it into fixed and innocuous compounds. Bacteriological tests 

 show that Bacillus coli communis may be present in 1 c.cm. or even 

 0*1 c.cm. of river water, in 10 c.cm. or less of water after preliminary 

 treatment, and not present in 100 c.cm. of the water after treatment. 

 Chemical tests show the absence of free chlorine from the treated water. 



Bacteriology of Landry's Paralysis.}: — A. Bevacqua gives an account 

 of the pathology and bacteriology of acute ascending paralysis. In sec- 

 tions of the spinal cord he found an organism, which he was subsequently 

 able to demonstrate also in the pons and the medulla oblongata, as well 

 as in the kidneys, liver, and spleen. He is of opinion that this is the 

 causal agent of the disease, and not a chance post-mortem infection. The 

 organism is a bacillus assuming at times a filamentous form, which grows 

 only under anaerobic conditions. On the ground of its cultural and 

 morphological appearance, and also of the gelatinous form of inflamma- 



* Centralbl. Bakt.,lte Abt. Orig., lvi. (1910) pp. 544-51. 



t English Mechanic, xcii. (1910) pp. 449-50. 



j Centralbl. Bakt., lte Abt. Orig., lvi. (1910) pp. 470-87. 



