BOTANY. 323 



plieric inoisture is esseDtial for its production. The coloring matter of 

 the bhie milk is not combined with the bacteria which may be present, 

 but is dissolved in the serum of the milk. A microscopic examination 

 shows ^he presence of small rod-like bodies, which ultimately form 

 torula-like chains. According to l^eelsen, the cells of the chain, which 

 he calls gonidia, remain dormant unless placed m fresh milk, in which 

 case they germinate. Tommasi-Crudelli and Klebs have studied the 

 origin of malarial fever, and conclude that malarial affections which they 

 induced experimentally were produced by organisms which were in the 

 ground in malarial districts before the outbreak of the fever, and 

 whose transmission in the air could be directly observed under definite 

 conditions of dampness and moisture. The organism which greatly 

 resembles Bacillus suhtilis has been named B. malariw. Hansen claims 

 the priority of having discovered the cause of leprosy to be an organ- 

 ism named Bacillus leprcc. 



One of the most important papers published during year is that of 

 Dr. Hans Buchner, On the experimental production of the Contagium of 

 Splenic Fever from Bacillits sihi'lis, with observations on the introduction 

 of splenic fever through the organs of respiration. As is well known, 

 Bacillus subtilis, a comn on ^dcterial form found in decoctions of hay, 

 can scarcely be distinguisbed morpliologically from Bacillus anthracis, 

 which is supposed to produce splenic fever in different animals. Buch- 

 ner undertook to ascertain whetlier, by varying the conditions of growth, 

 either of these two species might not be transformed into the other; 

 that is, B. anthracis miglit not become harmless when inoculated and 

 B. s7iMilis might not produce splenic fever. He found by cultivation of 

 B. anthracis in different solutions, as a solution of Liebig's extract of 

 ' meat, that it gradually lost its power of producing splenic fever when 

 inoculated, and at the end oi what he calls 1,500 generations of the 

 fungus he saw no difference, pathologically speaking, between the two 

 species in question. On the other hand, Bcillus subtilis, which had for 

 a certain length of time been cultivated in defibrinated blood, when in- 

 jected into different animals produced s\ mptoms of splenic fever. The 

 comparative distribution of bacteria in the air has been studied by Mi- 

 quel, who finds that they are much more nuiucrous in summer t'lau in 

 winter, and he states further that an increase of the amount of bacteria 

 is followed in a few days by an increase in the number of deaths from 

 contagious and epidemic diseases. The com-nunications of Pasteur on 

 the cholera of fowls, and the etiology of splenic fever, and the means of 

 prophylaxis, belong rather to the departmeiit of pathology than botany. 

 A paper on the Cause of Blight in Pear Trees was read by Prof. T. J. Bur- 

 rell before the Am. Assoc. Adv. of Science, in which he attril)uted the 

 disease to the presence of a minute bacterial tbrm. To a similar cause 

 it is also probable that the so-called yellows in peaches is to be attrib- 

 uted. Dr. George Sternberg, U. S. A., has issued a translation of Mag- 

 nin's Les Bacteries, to which he has added original notes and plates. 



