376 SUMMARY OF CUKKEKT KESEALCHES DELATING TO 



creased and the alcohol diminished. The conditions of ropiness or 

 abnormal viscosity and of double-facedness seem to depend on a com- 

 bination of two principal factors, namely, the composition of the wort, 

 and the number of disease germs entering into competition with the 

 yeasts, so that some worts would better resist the action of a given 

 number of the bacilli than others. Other questions dealt with are the 

 variations in the virulence of B. viscosus bruxellensis, its symbiosis with 

 other organisms, and its action on the carbohydrates in the cultivation 

 medium. 



Meningococcus intracellularis in Suppurative Inflammation of 

 Connective-Tissue.* — Dr. C. Fraenkel records three cases of suppuration 

 of connective-tissue due to Meningococcus intracellularis. The prepara- 

 tions showed large numbers of cocci within the cells, and even in the 

 nuclei, and cultivations on Loeffler's serum, serum smeared with human 

 blood, and on glycerin-agar, exhibited the appearances characteristic of 

 the microbe of cerebro- spinal meningitis described by Weichselbaum and 

 others. 



Bacillus typhosus and Pneumoniae — Dr. V. Stiihlern mentions two 

 cases of typhoid fever complicated with lobar pneumonia from which 

 the typhoid bacillus and diplococcus pneumoniae were isolated during 

 life. The bacillus was detected in the sputum, which in both instances, 

 contained much blood. Both specimens gave the Widal reaction. 



Atypical Diphtheria Bacilli.^ — Dr. P. White exhibited at the Patho- 

 logical Society of Manchester specimens of Bacillus diphtherias showing 

 branching obtained from a 48 hours old agar-cnlture. The culture was 

 remarkable for the large size of the club-shaped forms, some of which 

 measured as much as 40 fx in length. These large forms, as well as- 

 those of normal size, showed well-marked true branching, the branches 

 being clubbed at the extremities. Sub-cultures showed ordinary forms 

 of the bacillus only. 



Dr. J. R. Carver exhibited specimens of non- typical diphtheria 

 bacilli. Some of these were of great length, interlaced with one another, 

 showed doubtful branchings, and seemed to merit the term " strepto- 

 thricial " bacilli. The long forms disappeared on sub-culture. Other 

 specimens showed bacilli with enormous pear-shaped heads, and in some 

 the sheath was faintiy stained, while the protoplasm was collected into 

 a chain of fine granules, giving the appearance of an encapsuled strepto- 

 coccus. 



Diplococcus pneumonia?. § — Dr. J. W. H. Eyre gives an admirable 

 precis of what is known of the morphology, biology, and pathogenesis 

 of the Diplococcus pneumoniae. Though most of the facts have been 

 previously recorded by the author and other observers, a perusal of the 

 article will amply repay those who are interested in pneumonia or the 

 pneumococcus. Attention may, however, be drawn to the difference in 

 the effect of this organism on man and on animals. In man its action 

 appears to be directed chiefly towards producing an inflammatory con- 



» 



* Zeitschr. f. Hygiene, xxxi. (1899). See Beihefte z. Bot. Centralbl., ix. (1900> 

 pp. 142-4. f Centralbl. Bakt. u. Par., l te Abt., xxvii. (1900) pp. 353-C. 



t Lancet, 1900, i. p. 942. § Practitioner, March 1900, 24 pp. and 11 figs. 



