ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 725 



vaccinated with the Micrococcus melitensis, and also in the serum of 

 patients suffering from this disease. Serums of the immunised animals 

 and of patients at different stages of the disease, were heated to 56° C. 

 for 30 minutes, and 9-18 drops were mixed with 2-4 drops of alexic 

 fresh guinea-pig serum, and 5-10 drops of a homogeneous emulsion of 

 M. melitensis from a 4-day old agar culture in salt solution ; after 

 5 hours at ordinary temperature there is added to the serum mixture 

 under examination a mixture of 1 part of red corpuscles of a rabbit and 

 •2 parts of hemolytic serum of a guinea-pig, previously heated to 56"^ C. 

 for 30 minutes, this last being obtained by the repeated injection of 

 guinea-pigs with defibrinated rabbits' blood. Controls with normal 

 and other serums were made. A positive reaction showed an agglutina- 

 tion of the red corpuscles and complete clearing of the serum ; with a 

 negative reaction a haemolysis of the corpuscles occurred. 



Bacteriology of Broncho-pneumonia following Whooping Cough.* 

 P. Reyher finds in the upper respiratory passages and pharynx in cases 

 of whooping cough an excess of large polar-stained bacteria, and a less 

 number of rods resembling the influenza bacillus. Examination of the 

 sputum at different stages of the disease showed that the large polar- 

 stained rods were found free and in clusters only in the catarrhal state 

 until the commencement of the paroxysmal cough, and that during the 

 convalescent state these rods were inclosed in the flat epithelium. 

 The author considers that these polar-stained rods have an etiological 

 bearing on the disease. The rods vary from • 3-0 • 4 ju. by • 8-1 * /a ; 

 on ordinary nutrient media they develop with difficulty, forming small 

 round transparent colonies ; gelatin is not liquefied ; broth is not clouded 

 but shows a sedimentary growth. The specificity of tehe organism has, 

 however, not been established. 



Bacillus Pathogenic to Fish.j — L. H. Marks found that the death 

 of a number of fish in a laboratory aquarium was caused by an actively 

 motile short stout bacillus. It stains readily, but not by Gram's method ; 

 in the animal body there is a distinct capsule ; it grows well at ?il'^ C. 

 and 22° C, slowly at 10° C. ; colonies on agar have a soft consistence 

 and even contour, and a dirty yellowish white colour ; it grows on all 

 media, liquefies Loeffler's serum at 37° C, and gelatin at 22° C. ; 

 colonies on Endo-agar are pale pink and later red and without metallic 

 sheen ; glucose is fermented but not lactose ; sterile milk is coagulated 

 within 3 days with an alkaline reaction ; indol is formed in broth. The 

 organism was isolated in some cases from the heart blood ; but more 

 often from the spleen and bowel. It is very virulent : • 5 c.cm. of a 

 mixture of 5 loopfuls of heart blood in 1 c.cm. of broth was fatal for 

 mice within 6-8 hours, a pure culture being recovered from the heart 

 blood of the mouse. The bacillus produces a ha^molysin ; the germ-free 

 filtrate is strongly toxic for small animals. 



Mineral Requirements of Bacteria.^ — W. Benecke has studied the 

 mineral requirements of B. chitinovorus, B. fluorescens liquefnciens, and 



* Centralbl. Bakt., Ite Abt. Orig., xliv. (1907) p. 493. 



t Tom. cit., p. 370. % Bot. Zeit., xiii. (1907) p. 1. 



3 B 2 



