ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 525 



passer. They found that the administration of vaccines did not protect 

 against experimental typhoid. 



Variability of Intestinal Bacteria.* — W. J. Penfold describes his 

 investigations upon the influence of monochloracetic acid upon the gas- 

 producing power of certain intestinal organisms. This research was 

 suggested by the observation of the effect of certain constituents enter- 

 ing into the production of glycocoll upon these organisms. The gas- 

 producing power of Bacillus coli, B. enteritidis (Gsertner), and B. Griinthal 

 on certain sugars was found to be reduced or completely removed by 

 growth on monochloracetic-acid agar. This was true in the case of nearly 

 all sugar media, but did not hold for the alcohols, such as mannite and 

 dulcite. When these organisms were grown upon monochloracetic-acid 

 agar, a marked variability in the size of the colonies was observed, and 

 secondary colonies or papilla? were formed. The new varieties retained 

 their power of producing gas from formates. The identity of these 

 variant strains with the typical strains from which they were derived was 

 established by the application of complement-fixation methods. 



Capsule-formation of Typhoid Bacilli. — In the course of his in- 

 vestigations of the agglutination of typhoid bacilli by certain sera, G. 

 Kiihnemann found that, under certain conditions, the organisms, after 

 being in contact with serum, became capsulated. This was demon- 

 strated by staining films of centrifugalized bacteria by means of a modi- 

 fication of Loeffler's flagella stain. The phenomenon was observed when 

 the serum employed was derived from young animals. In one case it was 

 observed with a serum obtained from a child eighteen months old. The 

 dilution of 1 in five or 1 in ten of serum appeared to be the most favour- 

 able for capsule formation. The presence or absence of agglutination 

 appeared to possess no influence in this respect. The author considers 

 that capsule-formation forms part of the protective mechanism of the 

 bacillus, and that its occurrence affords an index of its virulence and the 

 ratio between the protective powers of the organism and of the host. 



Etiology of Rhinoscleroma.J — B. Galli-Yalerio, after a short review 

 of the clinical features of this condition, mentions the earlier hypotheses 

 that the disease was due to tubercle or syphilis. The bacillus discovered 

 by v. Frisch in 1882, and named by him Bacillus rhinoscleromatis, is 

 now generally considered to be the causal organism. Babes, however, 

 described cases of the disease in which this organism could not be found. 

 The bacillus is a non-motile, Gram-negative rod, which does not liquefy 

 gelatin. Culturally and morphologically, it is indistinguishable from 

 B. pneumoniae and B. ozaense. The author has performed experiments 

 using the method of complement binding, and concludes that the three 

 organisms are identical. He considers that the disease is undoubtedly 

 due to this bacillus, developing probably where there is an hereditary 

 predisposition, or in the presence of such a condition as atrophic rhinitis. 



* Proc. Roy. Soc. Med. (Pathol, section) iv. (1911) pp. 97-109. 

 t Centralbl. Bakt., lte Abt. Orig., lvii. (1911) pp. 497-8. 

 j Centralbl. Bakt., lte Abt., Orig., lvii. (1911) pp. 481-90. 



Aug. 16th, 1911 2 M 



