ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 249 



cose, 1 p.c. potassium sulphocyanide, 2 parts aqueous • 5 p.c. neutral- 

 red solution. 



Sporotrichosis.* — Pinoy and J. Magrou passed into the testicles of 

 guinea-pigs, hairs, previously sterilized, and afterwards dipped into pus 

 from some suppurating focus of cases of sporotrichosis. After two 

 months the guinea-pigs were killed, and microscopical examination of 

 the pus, which was present around the infected hairs, showed the pre- 

 sence of the yeast-like parasite. Pure cultivations were obtained in 

 Sabouraud's medium. The best method for demonstrating the presence 

 of the parasite was by the slow method of Claudius. The preparations 

 were left for 20 minutes in a solution of gentian-violet or of crystal- 

 violet, and then treated for 10 minutes with a half-saturated solution of 

 picric acid. The differentiation was effected with chloroform. The 

 authors suggest that this method of iuoculating-guinea pigs may be 

 found useful in doubtful cases of sporotrichosis. 



E,. L. Sutton t records a case of this infection communicated through 

 the horse, which animal is often the subject of mycotic lymphangitis. 

 The organism was cultivated in agar slopes — a pure culture being ob- 

 tained from one tube, the rest being contaminated with other organisms. 

 The pure culture showed the characteristic mycelia, varying in length 

 from 8 to 5 /M, with numbers of oval conidia from 1 to 2 /u, in diameter. 



H. Gr. Adamson | records a case of sporotrichosis which had been 

 acquired in Brazil. The fungus was successfully cultivated in Sabou- 

 raud's medium (pepton Chassaing 1, glucose or maltose 3 "7, agar 1'5, 

 water 100). The growth was at first dirty white, moist, smooth, having 

 acuminate elevation, . with a finely-fringed margin. Colonies first ap- 

 peared on the sixth day, and in subcultures on the second. In about a 

 foitnight the growth had become dark brown. Microscopically the 

 growth consisted of mycelium, with oval or round spores attached to 

 the mycelium, singly or in groups, by a fine pedicle. The fungus was 

 demonstrated in sections of the tissue affected by means of pyronin and 

 methyl-green. 



Cultivation of Bacillus abortus. § — T. Smith and M. Fabyan found 

 that this organism, when freshly isolated from an infected animal, would 

 not grow in pure culture upon the ordinary media. When planted upon 

 agar in company with Bacillus snbtilis, B. megatherium, or other similar 

 organisms, it grew well, and after a few generations had thus existed in 

 mixed culture upon an artificial medium, the organism became capable of 

 independent growth. If isolated at this stage the bacillus would grow 

 in pure culture. The freshly isolated organism would not grow in com- 

 pany of organisms of feebler growth than those named above. After 

 acclimatisation it grows well upon potato, producing a brownish colour. 

 It grows also in milk, causing no alteration in the medium. Sugars are 

 not fermented. 



* C.R. Soc. Biol. Paris, Ixxi. (1911) pp. 376-8 (1 fig.). 



t Boston Med. and Surg. Journ., clxiv. (1911) pp. 179-81 (4 figs.). 



X Proc. Roy. Soc. Med., Dermatol. Sect , iv. (1911) pp. 113-21 (5 figs.). 



§ Centralbl. Bakt., Ite Abt. Orig,, Ixi. (1912) pp. 553-4. 



