ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 245 



tory oedema found in the spinal cord, the author considers that it is 

 closely allied to the Bacillus tcdematis maligni and the B. phlegmonis 

 emphysematosa Frankel. 



Bacillus Nenckii : New Agar-liquefying Organism.* — The pro- 

 perty of liquefying agar media has hitherto only been met with in two 

 types of micro-organism, viz. Bacterium betse viscosum, isolated by 

 K. Panek from beets, and Bacillus gelaticus Grau. W. Biernacki now 

 describes a small bacillus, isolated from Malaga raisins, which also 

 possesses this peculiarity. The organism is usually 1*25-2 /a in length, 

 and has a breadth of • 8 /i. The shape and size vary upon different 

 media, coccal forms being found on acid media, whereas on potato 

 longer forms are met with. The bacilli lie naturally in pairs, occasion- 

 ally in short chains. A facultative anaerobe, non-motile, non-sporing, it 

 takes up the ordinary stains, but does not retain the colour with Gram's 

 method. On gelatin, which is not liquefied, small yellowish white 

 granular colonies appear. The addition of glucose renders growth more 

 luxuriant. Agar is liquefied. Inoculation of a deep agar stab in an her- 

 metically sealed test-tube results in much gas-formation, tearing up the 

 medium, and in rapid liquefaction. Further investigations upon the various 

 fermentation reactions are now being carried out. This organism has 

 received the name Bacterium Nenckii. 



Bacteriology of Chorea.t — G. Camisa gives an account of a diplo- 

 streptococcus isolated from the blood of chorea patients. The number 

 of cases investigated was nine, of which six were found to have this 

 organism in their blood. Simultaneous blood examinations of healthy 

 persons and patients suffering from other diseases were performed as 

 control experiments ; in none of these cases were any organisms obtained 

 from the blood. The chorea patients were then treated with intravenous 

 injections of sublimate in small doses. This caused complete cure, and 

 it was found that as the cases improved the blood became free from 

 micro-organisms. 



The organism isolated from all these cases is a small, Gram-positive 

 non-motile coccus, which occurs paired and in short chains. It grows 

 upon ordinary media, not liquefying gelatin, forming small punctate 

 colonies upon agar. A few animal inoculations gave negative results. 

 A series of agglutination experiments were made with serum obtained 

 from healthy persons, chorea patients, and patients suffering from infec- 

 tious diseases. Control experiments with Streptococcus pyogenes were 

 performed. It was found that with sernm from chorea patients agglu- 

 tination was obtained in somewhat higher dilutions than with serum 

 from others, although two typhoid sera give positive results in higher 

 dilutions than any of the chorea patients. As the cases improved, this 

 reaction became less marked. 



Virulence of Pneumococcus and Streptococcus."}: — E. L. Lo Monaco 

 has made a study of the action of various immune sera upon these 

 organisms by inoculation of cultures grown in media containing serum 



* Centralbl. Bakt., 2te Abt., xxix. (1911) pp. 166-9. 



t Tom. cit.,pp. 99-107. J Tom. cit., pp. 103-48. 



