174 EXPERIMENT STATION" RECORD. 



literature in regard to tlie action of gaseous substances upon bacteria con- 

 siders tlie theoretical treatment of the micro-organisms by halogen, nitrogen, 

 and oxygen compounds, phenol, methane, and ethereal oil vapors, formalde- 

 hyde and sulphurous acid. The remainder of the book treats of the practical 

 methods of disinfection with formaldehyde, particularly without apparatus. 



The spontaneous oxidation of arsenical dipping fluids, A. V. Fuller {U. S. 

 Dcpt. Agr., Bur. Anhn. Indus. Circ. 182, j)p. 8). — The author's investigations 

 show that sodium arsenite in dipping fluids may undergo oxidation to arsenate 

 through the agency of a micro-organism or organisms not yet identified. 



"This oxidation may be quite rapid and in time proceeds practically to com- 

 pletion. The velocity of the reaction is dependent, of course, upon the number 

 of the organisms introduced and upon their rate of multiplication, the hitter 

 being determined by the nature and quantity of organic matter present, the 

 temperature, and, in short, all the agencies which influence bacterial growth. 

 Inasmuch as the organism or organisms in question have not as yet been 

 identified, it is impossible to state at present just how they gain access to the 

 baths. There are several channels through which the inoculation might be 

 effected, namely, through the water used in preparing the solutions, through 

 the air, or through excrementitious or other matter derived from the cattle 

 which pass through the dip. In view of the fact that the conditions to which 

 the baths are exposed in actual practice are necessarily subject to wide varia- 

 tions, it is difficult to set a limit to the time which a given dip might be allowed 

 to remain idle without undergoing alteration. However, it would api)ear safer 

 to discard any batch of dip which is more than a few weeks old unless there 

 is positive evidence that it retains its original concentration of actual sodium 

 arsenite. Efforts will be made to isolate the causative agent of this phenomenon 

 and to study its properties." 



Practical bacteriology, blood work, and animal parasitology, E. E. StitT 

 {Philadelphia, 1910, 2. ed., rev. and enl., pp. Xlll+SkS, pis. ff, figs. 87).— Among 

 the topics treated in the section on bacteriology are apparatus, culture media, 

 staining methods, study and identification of bacteria and molds, bacteriology 

 of water, air, and milk, and practical methods in immunity ; in the portion on 

 the study of blood are micrometry and blood preparations, and normal and 

 pathological blood ; and in the section on animal parasitology are classification 

 and methods, the protozoa, flat and round worms, the Arachnoidea, mosquitoes 

 and other insects, and poisonous snakes. The clinical bacteriological part also 

 includes animal parasitology of the various body fluids and organs, contains 

 diagnoses of infections of the ocular region and nasal cavities, examination of 

 buccal and pharjTigeal material, sputum, urine, feces, blood cultures and blood 

 parasites, stomach contents, pus, skin infections, cytodiaguosis, rabies, and 

 vaccinia. The work also has bacteriological keys, zoological tables, and an 

 appendix which deals with miscellaneous topics. (See E. S. R., 20, p. 1079.) 



About the activity of bacteria (aggressins) during infection, E. Weil 

 (Ergcb. Wiss. Med., 1 {1909), No. 1, pp. 33-Ji-'f; abs. in Ztschr. Immunitiitsf. u. 

 Expt. Thcr., II, Ref., 3 {1910), ^^o. 11, p. 9S3).— Tests with fowl cholera bacilli 

 on rabbits an© guinea pigs showed that chicken cholera immune serum does not 

 act through the agency of bacteriolysins nor immuno-opsinins (bacteriotropins), 

 but by stimulating the aggressins to inhibit the niultiplic;ition of bacteria, in 

 this way preventing infection and death. Comparative tests with the anthrax 

 bacillus and the hay bacillus showed the latter to have an aflinity for 

 aggressins. 



Artificial immunization in nonbacterial diseases, S. P. Beebe {Join: Amer. 

 Med. Assoc, 55 {1910), No. 20, pp. 1712-1717; abs. in Ztschr. Immunitatsf. u. 



