278 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Rabbits which received enormous doses (10 cc. of 1:200 solution) remained 

 alive and were still perfectly well a number of months after the experiment. 

 In another group of experiments, however, the animals died within a minute 

 or so after injection. These experiments showed conclusively that blood with- 

 drawn from animals thus injected possesses the selective bactericidal power of 

 the dye, but that this power disappears completely in about 2 hours. There is 

 no similar loss of selective bactericidal power when the dye is simply allowed 

 to remain in contact with blood in vitro. Intravenous injection of gentian 

 violet was found to result in prompt and fairly deep staining of the visible 

 mucous membranes, and also appears in the mucous membranes lining the gas- 

 tro-intestinal tract. The visible membranes remained stained about 48 hours, 

 the stain disappearing slowly during this time. 



The fate of the dye in other organs has not been determined. Frozen sections 

 of tongues of dogs and rabbits painted with strong solutions of the dye showed 

 that penetration had occurred through the thickness of the mucosa down to the 

 muscularis. 



Experiments on the cultivation of so-called trachoma bodies, H. Noguchi 

 and M. Cohen (Jour. Expt. Med., 18 (1913), No. 5, pp. 572-578, pi. i).— "An 

 organism was isolated and studied in pure cultures from cases of conjunctivitis 

 accompanied by the so-called trachoma body inclusions, as well as from a case 

 of old trachoma without inclusions. This organism was not found in the cul- 

 tures made from other forms of conjunctivitis in which the inclusions were 

 absent. The organism presents the morphological features characteristic of 

 so-called trachoma bodies. It undergoes an early transformation, during which 

 the forms known as initial bodies appear, and a later change, during which 

 forms resembling elementary granules arise, while certain intermediate forms 

 between these occur simultaneously. No definite cell inclusions could be pro- 

 duced in monkeys by inoculating pure cultures of the organism. The cultiva- 

 tion of this organism from a case of trachoma without the cell inclusions, to- 

 gether with the previously ascertained fact that the inclusions can be pro- 

 duced in suitable animals by inoculating such material directly from a human 

 case, suggests the possibility of the organism being still present in such cases 

 of trachoma, although not in the form of cell inclusions. 



"The facts presented justify the statement that by a suitable method an 

 organism resembling the various important stages of the trachoma bodies and 

 totally distinct from the gonococcus has been obtained in a living condition 

 capable of indefinite cultivation from cases of human trachoma and inclusion 

 conjunctivitis. Whether the organism and trachoma bodies are identical can 

 not be positively stated at present. But the way is now opened to determine 

 this point, as well as the specificity of the trachoma bodies." 



On th.e toxins of ascarids, H. Dobeeneoker (Uhe?- Toxine der Askariden. 

 Inaug. Diss., Univ. Bern, 1912, pp. 87). — In this paper the author first reviews 

 the literature at length (pp. 3-15) and then reports his own investigations. 

 He concludes that the ascarids contain toxins in their body fluid which in man 

 act particularly on the brain and in animals on the spinal cord, as well as 

 irritating the skin and mucous membranes; that male and female ascarids of 

 the same genus are equally toxic ; that the body fluid of Ascaris megalocephala 

 is more toxic than that of A. lumJ)ricoides ; and that the toxic action of the 

 body fluid of ascarids is destroyed by the gastric juice. 



Verminous toxins; A review, Weinberg {Bui. Inst. Pasteur, 10 {1912), Nos. 

 22, pp. 969-977; 23, pp. 1017-1026; 24, PP- 1065-1072) .—This paper, presented 

 at the First International Congress of Comparative Pathology, held at Paris in 

 October, 1912, deals with the subject under the headings of (1) indirect evi- 

 dence, including verminous eosinophilia, and the passage of verminous toxins 



