592 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



species of Actinomyces, culturally resembling the pathogenetic form, 

 and in another Sporotrkhum was found in large numbers. The other - 

 genera listed, being generally found in soil and in decaying vegetable 

 matter, are not indicative of cleanliness. 



Anaerobic Pyogenic Bacteria.* — F. Putsu claims to have isolated 

 from a case of compound fracture of the femur with gas gangrene, a 

 pure culture of a definitely anaerobic bacterium having special charac- 

 teristics, and named by him BaciJlus pi/triftciis var. non-Uquefaciens.] 

 This bacillus is evidently a micro-organism from the soil, definitely 

 anaerobic, capable of producing putrid decomposition with development 

 of gas and formation of pus in tissues previously injured ; in fact, it is 

 one of the germs which are the cause of gas gangrene and gas phlegmon. 

 In cultures all the organisms showed the presence of ,a spore, were ovoid 

 or club-shaped, with the spore at one extremity. They were motile, with 

 a rectilinear movement which ceased at the edge of the hanging drop 

 where they were in contact with the air. With Ziehl's stain the spore 

 was unstained or nearly so, the body of the organism taking a deep 

 red. With Gram's method, using eosin as a differential stain, young 

 forms of recent growth in broth took a red-violet hue. Tlie red part 

 constituted the body of the bacillus, while the violet represented the edge 

 or membrane of the spore. Elongated non-spore-bearing forms some- 

 times met with in recent cultures were Gram-negative. Aerobic cultures 

 in broth, broth-glucose, or agar, remained completely sterile. The 

 organism described bv Putsu to some extent resembled the B. lacto- 

 propylhutyricus non-liqiiefaciens of Tissier, but differing from it in the 

 following particulars : in not having a central spore, in the absence of 

 spore in elongated forms, in forming irregular broken colonies, and in 

 coagulating milk without the aid of glucose. 



Aspergillosis in the Ostrich Chick. | — J. AYalker states that chick 

 fever, or yellow liver, sometimes causes a mortality as high as 70 p.c. 

 among ostrich chicks reared on certain farms in South Africa. Various 

 moulds, notably of the Aspei-giUus type, were observed by him in the 

 lesions of chick fever, and were found to be capable of transmitting 

 the disease. A.fumigaius appears in the ostrich, and more particularly 

 in the ostrich chick from a few days to about four to five weeks after 

 hatching, the infection occurring in the air-chamber of the egg. 

 Infected eggs are the chief source of infection of incubators, the liberation 

 of A. fumiijatus from the air-chamber taking place either at the time of 

 hatching or when infected eggs are opened in the incubators. The 

 disease can be traijsmitted from infected to clean eggs through the 

 unbroken shell. 



Destruction of Acridians by means of Bacterial Cultures. § — 

 Monod and Yelu have applied d'Herelle's coccobacillus with the view to 



* Lancet, September 16, 1916. 



t II Policlinico, Surgical Section, August 15, 1916. 



X Union of South Africa Dept. of Agriculture Reports, 1915, pp. 533-74. 



$ Rec. de M6d. Vet., xcii. (1916) pp. 346-8. 



