and Laboratory Methods. 1^29 



Busquet. Transmission de la tuberculose par The author has described a new source 

 les timbrespost. Hyg. Rund. 11: 289, of distribution of tuberculosis by pos- 

 tage stamps which the collector of 

 postage stamps moistens with his tongue for the purpose of sticking them into 

 stamp albums. A case of tuberculosis having such a source was brought to the 

 author's attention, the patient being a soldier, who was a stamp collector. The 

 author, thinking that the stamps were possibly the source of the trouble, made 

 careful studies of these stamps, inoculating guinea pigs with a watery solution 

 made from them, and in every case the animals showed tuberculosis. The 

 author thinks that this is a new source of distribution which should be guarded 

 against. h. w. c. 



, , . u J »; 11' T-. J J After alluding; to the close biological 



Leclainche and Vallee. Etude comparee du -^i^v-i anu^i ^ t, 



vibrion septique et delabacteriesdu charbon relations of the bacterium of sympto- 

 SQo^i'g^o^"'^'''" ^""- '^^ '■'"''■ ^^''■'^' matic anthrax and the septic vibrio, 



the authors state that it is possible to 

 distinguish the two microbes for, while the septic vibrio produces long forms 

 both in the serum of the specific oedema and in the peritoneal sac of guinea 

 pigs, these are constantly absent in the case of symptomatic anthrax. The same 

 methods for immunising against anthrax are applicable to the vibrio, and the 

 immunising serums are in both cases rigorously specific. The same holds good 

 for agglutination by these serums. Animals vaccinated against anthrax are not 

 immunised against the vibrio; and, reciprocally, vaccination against the 

 septicaemia does not protect against anthrax. h. w. c. 



Funck. A Preliminary Note on the Etiological The author claims to have finally solved 

 Agent in Vaccinia and Variola. Brit. Med. (.}^g problem of the specific agent in 

 Jour., p. 448, 1900. . . , . , . J. 



vaccme virus and variola. According 



to his views this is not a bacterium, but a protozoon, belonging to the group of 

 Sporozoa, which the author has named Sporidium vaccinale. This protozoon 

 he finds uniformly present in the vaccine pustules, as well as those of variola. 

 He finds that vaccine material, treated in such a way as to render it impossible 

 for bacteria to live, still contains these protozoa. The most significant part of 

 his work consisted in separating the organisms in question, in what seems to be 

 a pure culture. His method is as follows : In the pustules he finds that the 

 protozoon produces sporocysts which are of tolerably good size. These sporo- 

 cysts are large enough for him to fish out successfully with a platinum needle. 

 He then places them in a small amount of sterilized agar and makes an emul- 

 sion with a sterilized liquid. Such an emulsion he found capable of reproducing 

 the disease, and he is convinced, consequently, that this protozoon is the long 

 sought cause of variola and, probably therefore, of small pox. If these conclus- 

 ions are correct, they will doubtless inaugurate an new era in the study of small 

 pox. H. w. c. 



Fisher, Alfred. Die Empfindlichkeit der Bak- Fisher has, in this paper, published a 

 terienzelle und das baktericide Serum. ^^j. pregnant series of experiments 

 Zeit. f. Hyg., 35: I, 1900. , ^. ^ , ,, r\, , 



bearing upon the problem of the alex- 



ines in the blood. Fisher is clearly of the opinion that the destruction of bacteria 



