522 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



well-marked effect was obtained by adding sterile soil or a watery extract 

 of sterile soil to the experimental sample. A variety of other experiments 

 were performed, which led the authors to the conclusions that the influ- 

 ence of the soil in peptone destruction is unmistakable, and that this 

 influence is aided not only by ordinary plant foods, but by other substances, 

 such as silicates and acid derivatives of humus. There appear, however, to 

 be certain soluble compounds in the soil, which have an inhibiting effect, 

 but this point requires further investigation. The influences of aeration, 

 temperature, and moisture were also studied in some detail. 



Change of Biological Characters in Bacteria.* — H. Stromberg, 

 using the agglutination reaction, was able to distinguish sharply between 

 the Gaertner and Paratyphoid B groups. Some enteritis strains giving 

 the usual cultural characteristics were difficult or impossible to identify 

 by agglutination, and these probably represent degenerated strains which 

 were originally typical. This affords indirect evidence of the possibility 

 of alteration in biological characters, but no direct evidence of this could 

 be obtained, as, for instance, alteration in the typical strains, or further 

 alteration in the atypical ones. No connexion could be determined 

 between the form of the colonies on agar and the biological characters, 

 and there appears to be no characteristic type of colony formation either 

 in the Gaertner group or in the Paratyphoid B. The occurrence of 

 different colony formations in the same culture seems to indicate the 

 beginning of a change, as is evidenced by the fact that some of these 

 colonies show slight change in the agglutination reaction. 



Strict Anaerobic Bacillus causing Purulent Pleurisy. f — F. Niosi 

 has discovered and described a strict anaerobe causing pleurisy with 

 putrefaction, and considers that the pathogenic anaerobes are probably 

 much more numerous than has hitherto been believed. The organism 

 is a short, plump, non-motile bacillus, frequently in pairs and chains, 

 without capsule, and non-sporing. It is Gram-positive in fresh pre- 

 parations, but almost negative from cultures. 



Verruga peruana. J — B. Galli-Valerio has found, in a case of Verruga 

 peruana or Maladie de Carrion, an acid-fast bacillus. In the blood of a 

 second case he found bodies in the erythrocytes like those observed by 

 Biffi, Basset Smith, and others, while in a third he met with bodies, sur- 

 rounded by a clear halo, resembling Piroplasma marginals of cattle. 



Trypanotoxin of Bacillus subtilis.§— C. Levaditi and C. Twort 

 state in a preliminary note that the toxin of B. subtilis is lethal to the 

 Trypanosomes of Nagana, and also to the spirilla of tick fever and to 

 Leishmania, while it is inactive to Spirillum gallinarum. 



Presence of Streptotricheae in Tuberculous sputum. ||— L. Darwacki 

 isolated a streptothrix thrice out of twenty examinations. The medium 

 was potato with -4 p.c. glycerin. One is identified as OosporapulmonaUs 



* Centralbl. Bakt., l»e Abt., lviii. pp. 401-45. 

 t Centralbl. Bakt., lte Abt., lviii. (1911) pp. 193-228 (4 figs.). 

 % Centralbl. Bakt., lte Abt., lviii. (1911). 

 § C.R. Soc. Biol. Paris, lxx. (1911) pp. 645-7. 

 C.R. Soc. Biol. Paris, lxx. (19H)pp. 180-1. 



