418 SUMMAKY OF CURKENT KESEAKCHES RELATING TO 



Schizophy ta. 



Scbizomycetes. 



Pathogenicity of Bacillus alcaligenes fsecalis.* — A. Rochaix and 

 H. Marotte report two interesting cases of blood-stream infection with 

 Bacillus alcaligenes feecalis. The patients presented symptoms of gastro- 

 intestinal infection. During the first two or three days of the illness 

 the temperature varied between 39° C. and 40° C, and gradually regained 

 the normal after about ten or twelve days. Haemocultures, made the 

 day after admission to hospital, were positive ; a second culture made, 

 in one case, sis days later was negative. The bacilli thus isolated, 

 agglutinated the serum of the patients in dilutions of 1 in -200 and 1 in 

 50U, after several artificial cultivations. Moreover, the serum of the 

 first case agglutinated the bacillus of the second case in a dilution of 

 1 in 200, and the serum of the second case agglutinated the bacillus 

 of the first case in a dilution of 1 in loOo. The bacilli isolated gave 

 all the cultural reactions of BaciUus alcaligenes fsecalis. Similar cases 

 have been reported by Petruchsky in 1912, Fiirth in 1913, and Straub 

 and Krois in 1914. 



Coccobacillus buccalis.f — Mme. A. Panayotatou has separated from 

 two cases of ulcerative stomatitis an organism which appears to be the 

 cause of that condition, frequently met with in Egyptian children as a 

 result of bad hygienic circumstances. The organism stains well with 

 the ordinary aniline dyes and is Gram-negative, non-motile, and grows 

 well on the ordinary laboratory media. It produces a uniform cloudiness 

 in broth after twenty-four hours. At the surface a delicate scum 

 adherent to the sides of the tube is formed, Avhile at the bottom of the 

 tube an aljundant greyish precipitate is produced. Upon agar slopes 

 the growth is thick and viscous, and bubbles of gas are formed in 

 deep agar stabs. No Uquefaction of gelatin is produced. The organism 

 forms acid and gas in lactose, saccharose, raffinose, mannite, glucose, 

 and maltose, and does not hasmolyze ral)bit erythrocytes. It is a strict 

 anaerobe. Intravenous inoculation of rabbits produces haemorrhagic 

 stools and intestinal hsemorrhages. Diarrhoea persists for several days, 

 the temperature oscillating between 39-5° C. and 39° C. The experi- 

 mental animal makes a complete recovery. The cultures can, however, 

 be exalted by passage, so that a half agar slope of culture is lethal for 

 the rabbit in some thirty hours. Subcutaneous inoculation produces 

 oedema and injection of the skin at the end of twenty-four hours. On 

 the third day ulceration takes place accompanied by a dirty and 

 grnmous discharge, which forms crusts on drying. The organism can 

 be recovered from the ulcerated surfaces in pure culture. 



Morphology of Bacillus icterigens.J — S. Costa and J. Troisier 

 have isolated an organism, belonging, it is believed, to the Actinomycetes 



* C.R. Soc. Biol. Paris, Ixxix. (1916) pp. 316-8. 

 t C.R. Soc. Biol. Paris, Ixxix. (1916) pp. 291-2. 

 X C.R. Soc. Biol. Paris, Ixxix. (1916) pp. 330-2. 



