THE JOURNAL OF PAHRM\COL,OGY. 



19 



alt's, Hyperiaim, Myrsine, etc., and states 

 that the pigment is composed essentially 

 of a gum-resinous substance colored by a 

 yellowish-red essential oil, its chemical 

 constitution varying with the species. 

 These spots are not, as a rule, found in 

 the earliest stages of development of the 

 organ, and are evidently the results of 

 the transformation of leucites. They are 

 often surrounded by a membrane, and 

 are always imbedded in the parenchyme, 

 and are surrounded by ordinary cells. 



Bacteria in Cheese.— Centralblatt fur 

 Bakteriologie, {through Nature .) 



Messrs. Russell and Weinzirl have 

 studied the rise and fall of bacteria in 

 cheddar cheese, determinations of the 

 number of bacteria per gramme in Amer- 

 ican cheddar cheese being made at dif- 

 ferent stages of the ripening process, 

 while the varieties present were roughly 

 classified under the heads of lactic acid 

 bacteria, gas-producing bacteria, casein- 

 digesting bacteria, and inert bacteria, or 

 those having apparently no effect on 

 casein in milk cultures. In samples of 

 green cheese examined immediately 

 after being removed from the press, a 

 diminution in the numbers of bacteria 

 present was noted as compared with the 

 initial number present in milk. This 

 period of bacterial decline, however, 

 generally lasts but two days, and is fol- 

 lowed by a very marked increase in the 

 numbers present later on, so much so 

 that in the course of a few days, gener- 

 ally from eight to twenty, the germ con- 

 tents may increase many fold. This 

 active bacterial growth is not by any 

 means equally distributed amongst all 

 the varieties of microbes present, but is 

 almost exclusively confined to the lactic 

 acid group of organisms, the gas- pro- 

 ducing bacteria as well as the casein- 



dissolving varieties rapidly disappearing. 

 The relation between this pronounced 

 multiplication of the lactic acid bacteria 

 and the ripening process in cheese is not 

 yet exactly established, although the 

 presumption is that these organisms are 

 mainly responsible for these changes. 

 This presumption is rendered more likely 

 by the fact that Freudenreich, studying 

 Emmenthaler or Swiss cheese, found the 

 same coincidence between ripening and 

 multiplication of lactic acid bacteria, and 

 Lloyd, in his investigations of English 

 cheddar cheese, arrived at the same re- 

 sult and came to a similar conclusion. 

 The maximum period of bacterial de- 

 velopment is followed by a period of 

 final decline; in the course of time cheese 

 may become sterile, although an exam- 

 ination of a hard dry skim cheese over 

 two years old demonstrated the presence 

 of a few lactic acid bacteria. 



Drugs at Kew.— The completion of 

 the tenth annual volume of the Kew 

 Bulletin has made it desirable to publish 

 a detailed index to the whole series, 

 since the increase in the number of vol- 

 umes has rendered it more difficult to 

 find the information they may contain 

 on any particular subject. The oppor- 

 tunity has been taken to pass in review 

 briefly the more important subjects which 

 have been treated, and this has the more 

 interest as the period covered has been 

 one of more than usual activity in the 

 development of British tropical posses- 

 sions, Amongst other matters of interest 

 many little-known drugs have been in- 

 vestigated. The seeds of Sophora secund- 

 i flora have a singular use among the 

 Indians of Mexico, where they are taken 

 as an intoxicant. Half a seed is said to 

 produce exhilaration followed by sleep 

 lasting two or three days {Kew Bulletin, 



