1428 Journal of Applied Microscopy 



Buchner admits that, though in earlier years he was inclined to place no weight 

 upon the phagocytosis theory, he has in recent years come to believe that this 

 theory of Metschnikoff represents a truth. The phagocytes are active agents in 

 immunity, and produce their effect from the fact that they eliminate certain 

 poisonous products which are the direct cause of the repressing action upon the 

 invading bacteria. With this admission, the French and German schools are 

 very close together. Buchner makes a further classification of these poisonous 

 products produced in the animal body, showing that they are to be divided into 

 two different types. One class is destroyed by a heat of (30° C, and the other is 

 not destroyed by this temperature. He thinks that these two should be separ- 

 ated from each other and would call the first group, which can resist the temper- 

 ature of 60°, by the name of alexines, while the latter group, which cannot resist 

 this temperature, he calls " anti-bodies," (antikorper ), for example anti-toxin, 

 anti-haematin, etc. h. w. c. 



Sternberg, Carl. Zur Kentniss des Aktino- The author makes a study of three 

 mycespilzes. Hyg. Rund. II : 207, iqoi. r • ■ • r 



cases of actmomycosis m man, from 



which he succeeds in isolating three different cultures of Actinomyses. These 



cultures, when inoculated into guinea pigs and rabbits, produced typical 



abscesses in which great quantities of the fungus were found in form of rods. 



The author concludes that the species which he has described are identical with 



the Wolf-Israel Actinomyses although the results of animal inoculations are 



somewhat different. He believes that the Actinomyses species, liable to attack 



the human body, are two in number. One of these he has described, while the 



other is that described by Bostroem. h. w. c. 



Miscellaneous Studies of Cancer. The whole of number 52 of \\\^ Journal 



of the Boston Society of Medical Science issued October, 23, 1900, is taken up 

 with a report of the series of studies on cancer made at the Harvard Medical 

 School. There are several distinct papers devoted to various aspects of the 

 problem. The problems considered include, statistics of cancer ; the etiolog}' of 

 cancer ; a report on the presence of " Plimmer's Bodies " in cancer ; the study 

 of tumors and sporozoa in fishes ; a paper, with a figure, on a reconstruction of 

 a cancer nodule, and a series of reports on culture experiments made with 

 carcinomatous tissue. The papers are useful as giving an outline of various 

 facts known, but they reach no positive conclusion as to the cause of this 

 mysterious disease. h. w. c. 



^ ... . TT u J ,0 , , By improving his method of technique 



u. a Arrigo. Ueber die Gegenwart und uber ./ r- o -1 



die Phasen des Kochschen Bacillus in den the author has made a careful study of 

 sogenannten skrophulosen Lymphdrussen. scrofulous glands for the purpose of 

 Hyg. Rund. II : 292, 1901. ^ r r 



determining to what extent they are 

 tuberculous in origin. His general conclusion is that all so-called scrofulous 

 glands are tubercle lesions. He further finds that in ages from four to twelve 

 years the cervical and sub-axillary glands are most liable to be affected, while in 

 later life the axillary glands are more commonly attacked. The author further 

 finds that the bacilli in scrofulous glands have certain morphological 

 peculiarities. h. w. c. 



