VETERTNARr SCIENCE AKD PRACTICE. 889 



certain maximum, and then returns to the normal. The increase of the ajr<rhitinat- 

 ing power of the blood i^j to be regarded as an indication of successful self-protcctiou 

 on the jKirt of the animal. 



Artificial production of experimental spore material of a fixed degree of 

 resistance to living steam, for the purpose of testing the value of disinfection 

 methods, K. Wkil {Centhl. Bali. u. I'nr., 1. AbL, 30 {I'JOi), Xos. IJ, pp. 500-504; 

 14, 520-586). — For the purpose of testing the influence of various disinfecting materials 

 anthrax spores have been extensively used. The author calls attention, however, to 

 thegreat <lirtirultyof obtaining a suflicient number of anthrax spores forsucth experi- 

 ments and to the practical impossibility of maintaining any quantity of spores at the 

 same degree of resistance to unfavorable influences. Even when anthrax spores of 

 a known degree of resistance are protected from the light an<l kept at a con.stant low 

 temperature, they gradually lose their resisting power, and thus become useless for 

 the purpose of continued tests with known strengths of various germicide substances. 

 Better results were obtained by the author in making use of the spores of Bacillus 

 meserUericus rube)'. Spores of this bacillus which were maintained at a boiling tem- 

 perature for \ hr. did not show a sufficient reduction in their resisting power. After 

 being maintained at the same temperature for h hr. the desired degree of reduction 

 in resisting power was obtained. After such exposure the spores were found to 

 withstand the action of living steam for about 10 minutes. In some cases, however, 

 spores w'ere much more resistant, and it was found, therefore, that for the most 

 resistant examples of these spores an exposure to a boiling temperature for f hr. was 

 too short and for \n hr. was slightly too long in order to obtain the desired results. 

 After determining the fact that spores of a known degree of resistance could be pro- 

 duced by artificial means, it was desirable to ascertain w'hether these spores were 

 modified by desiccation or other external influences to such an extent that they coxild 

 not be depended upon to maintain the same degree of resistance for any considerable 

 period. Experiments along this line showed that for seven months spores were 

 unchanged in their resisting power l)y desiccation. Experiments were undertaken for 

 the purpose of determining whether cultures made from spores in whicli the resisting 

 ])ower had been artificially reduced would develop spores of a correspondingly weak- 

 ened resisting power. It was found that such was the case to a considerable <legree, 

 and it is believed that this fact may help to explain the existence in nature of races 

 of the same bacillus of varying degrees of virulence. 



The technique of micro-biology and serotherapy, A. Besson ( Technique micro- 

 hioloi/irjae et serotherapifjite. Paris: J. B. BaiUirre li: Sons, 1902,2. ed., pp. 686, figs. 

 289). — This volume contains an elaborate discussion of sterilization, culture media, 

 isolation of bacteria, incul)ation, bacteriological microscopy, staining of spores, cap- 

 sules and cilia, inoculations, observations of inoculated animals, teciinique of autop- 

 sies, and demonstration of pathogenic bacteria in the fluids and organs of the l)ody. 

 A large portion of the volume is devoted to a special study of the more important 

 bacteria which are concerned in the production of infectious diseases in man and ani- 

 mals. Special chapters are occupied with the study of the organisms of anthrax, 

 blackleg, swine erysipelas, fowl cholera, hog cholera, tetanus, glanders, tuberculosis, 

 and protozoan parasites. 



Morphology of the blood of the foetus of the rabbit and guinea pig and 

 the influence of infection of the gravid female on the blood of the foetus, 

 N. TsCHisTOViTSCH and Yol-rkwitsch [Ann. lust. Pasteur, 15 {1901), Xo. 10, pp. 753- 

 768). — In a study of the normal blood of the rabl)it fu'tus it was found that the various 

 white blood corpuscles exist in the following proportions: Polynuclcar eosinophilous 

 corpuscles, from 41. .3 to 62.7 i)er cent; ordinary leucocytes, from 2.it to 12 percent; 

 large mononuclear corpuscles, from 11.8 to 28 per cent; lymphocytes, from 4.2 to '> per 

 cent. In the normal fretus of the guinea pig the proportions of the different kinds of 

 leucocytes were as follows: Poly nuclear leucocytes with granular protoplasm, 0.7 to 



