524 SUMMARY OF CUBRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



inhalation disease : bovine tubercle bacilli play a relatively unimportant 

 role in the production of tuberculosis in man. 



Bacteriology of Baltimore City Water.* — W. W. Ford enumerates 

 six types of organisms met with in this water. (!) Bacillus coli \ (2) 

 B. proteus vulgaris ; (3) /!. cloacse ; (4) Paratyphoid or Paracolon ; 

 (5) liquefying organisms resembling B. coli ; (G) B.ftecalis alkaligmes. 

 The author expresses the opinion that the presence of non-pigmented, 

 non-spore-bearing, sugar-splitting bacteria indicates a serious and per- 

 manent pollution of the supply. 



Minute Structure of Bacillus anthracis.j — The methods employed 

 by H. Penau for the investigation of the cytology of bacteria have been 

 described in a previous paper.- In the present communication he deals 

 with the bacillus of anthrax. In the development of this micro-organism 

 the author recognized five stages. In the earliest stage there is little 

 differentiation of structure, the cell being occupied with dense basophil 

 cytoplasm. In the second stnge, found after 12 to 20 hours' growth, 

 the nucleus is seen usually at one of the poles. It is a well defined 

 structure, staining well with any of the nuclear dyes. This nucleus, in 

 the succeeding phase of development, becomes replaced by a basophil 

 reticulum, which gives the organism a vacuolated appearance. After 

 60 hours the basophil tracts break up and give way to moniliform struc- 

 tures, which collect together to form a morula. The margins of this 

 morula become well defined, and the body assumes an ovoid or circular 

 form. This structure develops into the adult spore. It appears that 

 the spore is developed from the nucleus, which, however, passes through 

 an intermediate reticular phase. 



Experimental Typhoid Fever 4 — The experimental infection of labo- 

 ratory animals with typhoid fever has alw'ays presented a problem diffi- 

 cult of solution to the bacteriologist. It is possible, by inoculations of 

 typhoid cultures, to produce peritonitis in a guinea-pig ; but the animal 

 shows none of the lesions characteristic of the disease. Grunbaum tried 

 to produce the disease in the chimpanzee, with moderate success. In 

 consequence of this difficulty, an idea has arisen that the causal organism 

 of the disease is not Eberth's bacillus, but a filter-passer. The recent 

 history of the bacillus of hog cholera has stimulated the supporters of 

 this view. 



In the present paper E. Metchnikoff and A. Besredka, after a resume 

 of the foregoing considerations, give a preliminary account of their 

 researches. By the oral administration to chimpanzees of typhoid cul- 

 tures which had passed through a chimpanzee, and in other cases of 

 typhoid cultures mixed with typhoid stools, they produced a disease 

 which presented all the typical lesions of typhoid fever. Only in excep- 

 tional cases, however, could they produce the disease in the lower apes. 

 Their experiments all showed that the typhoid bacillus is the causal 

 organism, and all the evidence was against the existence of a filter- 



- 



* Johns Hopkins Hosp. Bull., xxii. (1911) pp. 53-6. 

 + Comptes Rendus, clii. (1911) pp. 617-19. 

 | Ann. Inst. Pasteur, xxv. (1911) pp. 193-221. 



