876 EXPKRTMb^NT STATION EECORD. [Vol. 41 



(licated its composition to be approximately as follows: Caprylie acid 10, 

 capric 25, oleic 60, and palmitic 5 per cent. A synthetic antigen prepared from 

 the above proportions of purified acids and stabilized by the addition of a 

 trace of egg lecithin, pi-oved to be specific for B. cnthracis. Guinea pigs and 

 rabbits injected with large doses of the sterile artificial anthrax antigen regu- 

 larly developed anthrax infection from anthrax spores of low virulence injected 

 with the baled hay. Small doses of the antigen raised the resistance of the 

 animals against infection with a highly virulent strain of anthrax organisms. 

 Proteins isolated from anthrax bacilli did not act as antigens. 



The Australian epidemics of an acute polioencephalomyelitis (X disease), 

 J. B. Cleland, a. W. Campbell, and B. Bkadley (Rpt. Microbiol. Lab. {Govt. 

 Bnr. Microbiol.) [N. S. Wales'], 8 (1917), pp. 150-280, phj. iO).— This paper re- 

 ports investigations of a severe disease with cerebral symptoms and with a 

 mortality of about 70 per cent, which appeared in certain districts of New 

 South Wales in the late summer and autumn of 1917 and again a little earlier 

 in the year 1918. Outbreaks of a similar disease have occurred in the Goul- 

 burn Valley in Victoria, in Brisbane, and in Western Queensland, and in the 

 Townsville district. 



The authors' studies have led to the conclusion that the disease is a distinct 

 clinical entity. The virus responsible for it is evidently closely related to 

 that causing ordinary acute poliomyelitis, but is either specifically distinct or 

 a more recent irritant apparently breeding true. It has been conveyed by 

 intracerebral inoculations to monkeys, sheep, a calf, and a horse, but there is 

 no evidence of its occurring in animals or of animals acting as a reservoir of 

 the virus, or of the disease being conveyed .by an intermediate host from human 

 being to human being. The possibility of the occurrence of an intermediate 

 (invertebrate) host of the virus is discussed. 



Glycerinated rinderpest vaccine, C. Kakizaki (Kitasato Arch. Expt. Med. 

 [Tokyo], 2 (1918), No. 1, pp. 59-66). — An investigation of the immunizing power 

 of glycerinated rinderpest vaccine, prepared from defibrinated infected blood 

 and from an emulsion of infected spleen, is reported. 



The virulence of the glycerin blood extract was destroyed by standing for 

 20 days at a temperature of fi'om 18 to 22° C. and for 80 days at temperatures 

 lower than 15°, while that of glycerinated spleen required 60 days at tempera- 

 tures of from 15 to 29° and more than 90 days at lower temperatures. Double 

 vaccination with a total amount of from 20 to 30 cc. of the vaccine proved suf- 

 ficient to protect the Korean cattle employed in the experiments from further 

 infection by virulent blood. 



Report of bacteriological investigation of tetanus carried out on behalf of 

 the War Office Committee for the study of tetanus, W. J. Tulloch (Jour. Hyg. 

 [Cambridge], 18 (1919), No. 2, pp. 103-202, figs. i7).— This report deals with 

 bacterial research on tetanus along the following lines: Inquiries into the 

 occurrence of the various types of Bacillus tetam in the wounds of men suffer- 

 ing from tetanus and of those showing no evidence of the disease ; experiments 

 in vitro to determine whether immime sera, prepared by inoculation of wliole 

 cultures into animals, contain antibodies other than agglutinins specific to the 

 different types of the bacilli ; experiments in vivo to examine the problem of 

 infection with B. tetani as contrastetl with intoxication due to absorption of 

 the products of that organism ; the influence which various surgical procedures 

 exert upon infection of wounds due to anaerobic bacteria ; attempts to diagnose 

 tetanus and to determine the type of the infection by means of an agglutination 

 reaction ; a study of the possible relationship which may exist between the 

 serological type of a tetanus bacillus and the hem;igglutinating type of the 

 Individual from whom it was isolated ; u Uiscussiou q£ two cases of abdominal 



