500 SUMMARY OF GUKRENT KESEAECHES RELATING TO 



than twenty hours with hyperpyrexia! symptoms. The administration 

 of a similar quantity of sterile bile to a control animal only produced a 

 certain amount of temporary ill-health. The lethal effect can also be 

 produced by the simultaneous inoculation of 5 c.cm. bile and 5 c.cm. 

 ordinary bouillon culture. Virulent typhoid bacilli were recovered from 

 the peritoneal cavity, the heart-blood and the bile of the animals dead of 

 the infection, and on growing these organisms again in the presence of 

 bile, their virulence for guinea-pigs was further enhanced. 



Culture Media Prepared with Digested and Diluted Serum.* 

 A. Distaso advocates the following methods of preparing digested serum 

 media for general use in the laboratory : — 



Liquid Medium. — One volume of ox- or sheep-serum is diluted with 

 an equal volume of tap-water, and is sterilized for fifteen minutes at a 

 temperature of 120° C. The liquid is then digested for twenty-four 

 hours at 60^ C. with a chloroform extract of pig's pancreas. The digested 

 liquid, which should be of a clear amber colour, is passed through the 

 filter, distributed in tubes, and re-sterilized. The various sugars may be 

 added in order to produce the corresponding sugar media. 



Solid Media. — Three or four grm. of agar is added to 100 c.cm. tap- 

 water and sterilized. An equal volume of the liquid medium above 

 described is then added, and the whole re-sterilized. The resulting 

 medium is transparent and of an amber colour. It is admirably suited 

 for culturing the tubercle bacillus, and for demonstrating the pigment 

 produced by Bacillus proteus and other organisms. It is also very 

 suitable for growing anaerobic cultures of such organisms as B. per- 

 fringens, B. sporogenes, and B. putrificus. 



The media described are cheap, easy to prepare, and induce more 

 luxuriant cultures of micro-organisms than those obtained by the use of 

 ordinary pepton broth and agar media. 



Note on Dysentery from the Dardanelles.! — L. Tribondeau and 

 M. Fichet have investigated the fauna and flora of a series of 217 cases 

 invalided from the Dardanelles for dysentery. In forty-eight cases the 

 examination was positive, ten being cases of amoebic dysentery, and the 

 remaining thirty-eight being of bacillary origin. Of these latter, 

 twenty-three were due to the liacillus of Shiga, two to the bacillus of 

 Hiss, and thirteen apparently to bacilli of the Morgan group. The cases 

 in which the Morgan group organisms were isolated were typical, with 

 blood and mucus in the stools, and in which no other pathogenic 

 organism was demonstrated. Agglutination reactions with the patients' 

 sera were, however, negative, and the organism was not recoverable by 

 means of blood cultures. 



Effects of Sensitized Vaccines. J — S. Kakehi has completed an 

 elaborate study of the effects of sensitized vaccines as opposed to those 



* C.R. Soc. Biol. Paris, Ixxix. (1916) pp. 599-601. . 

 t Ann. Inst. Pasteur, xxx. (1916) pp. 357-62. 

 X Jouru. Path, and Bact., xx. (1916) pp. 410-41. 



