1918] VETERINARY MEDICINE. 483 



oiighly extracted, accurately standardized, and well preserved. The paste 

 is nonirritant and perfectly soluble in the body fluids. 



[A rapid method for the production of precipitin antigen from bacteria], 

 C. Krumwiede, je., and W. C. Noble (Jour. Immunol., 3 {1918), No. 1, pp. 

 1-10). — A very rapid method of preparing a concentrated precipitin antigen 

 from bacteria is described. A heavy suspension of bacteria in water is dis- 

 solved by boiling in sufficient alkaline hypochlorite solution to give a final con- 

 centration of 5 per cent. This is neutralized with normal hydrochloric acid and 

 precipitated with 95 per cent alcohol. The precipitate is boiled with normal 

 saline solution and centrifuged, the supernatant liquid being the finished antigen. 



This method differs from others in use in that the hypochlorite solutions are 

 boiled instead of being used in the cold, thereby hastening the process. It is 

 the opinion of the authors that the method is applicable to all bacteria with 

 the exception of the acid-fast types, and should be of value in experimental work 

 where a readily obtainable supply of concentrated antigen is needed. 



Contributions to the biochemistry of pathogenic anaerobes. — I, The bio- 

 chemistry of Bacillus welchii and B. sporogenes, C. G. L. Wolf and .1. E. G. 

 Harris {Jour. Path, and Bad., 21 {1917), No. 3, pp. 386-^^52, figs. i9).— This 

 forms part of an investigation of the pathogenic anaerobes in their relation to 

 wound infection. 



" Both the organisms investigated have certain properties in common, which 

 they exercise to different degrees. They grow with varying vigor on media 

 with or without the presence of carbohydrates and under favorable conditions 

 produce large quantities of gas. For their growth they are dependent on a cer- 

 tain initial concentration of amino acids. Before gas s evolved their activities 

 seem to be chiefly directed toward a proteolysis in preparation for further 

 development and gas formation. 



" B. sporogenes is particularly potent in its proteolytic action, and during 

 active growth will further digest a peptone solution which has been made by 

 the exhaustive treatment of a protein with trypsin and erepsin. It will break 

 down an albumin-like alkaline egg, until 28 per cent of the total nitrogen orig- 

 inally present is in a form reacting with nitrous acid. Both organisms have 

 butyric acid as an end product. The source of this acid in B. perfringens fer- 

 mentations is unquestionably the sugar group, if sugar be present. B. sporo- 

 genes forms large quantities of butyric acid in sugar-free media. In those 

 media containing lactose, this sugar is not apparently greatly affected." 



Successful treatment of anthrax by various methods, D. G. Dudley {Jour. 

 Amer. Med. Assoc, 10 {1918), No. 1, pp. 15-17). — The author has used with 

 success the following method of treatment of anthrax in human beings infected 

 in the handling of hides improperly disinfected. The first treatment, where 

 possible, is excision of the lesion. Eight per cent phenol 'a injected into 

 the tissues around the lesion, and I in. beyond the phenolized zone five or 

 sis syringefuls of 25 per cent alcohol are injected. After the excision, the 

 base and edges of the wound are painted with 95 per cent phenol neutralized 

 with absolute alcohol and wet dressings applied. If the excision fails, con- 

 tinued injection of 8 per cent phenol into the tissues is followed. Antianthrax 

 serum should then be used. The first dose is 35 cc. injected intravenously, 

 followed in from 8 to 16 hours by a second dose given intramuscularly or intra- 

 venously. With this treatment strychnin, ^^o grain, is given every 4 hours. 



Other methods suggested are the use of normal bovine serum and a steam 

 treatment, u.seful when the disease is localized. 



The diagnosis of dourine by means of the conglutination method, H. 

 Wehrbein {Arch. Wiss. u. Prakt. Tierheilk., ^S {1917), No. 2-3, pp. 233-23S; 



