and Laboratory Methods. 1^73 



hydrogen peroxyde acts quickly, only a few moments being required for decolor- 

 ization. The result is far more sure than by decolorization with acid. The tuber- 

 cle bacilli are never decolorized, and will be found, in the end, fully stained with 

 the carbol-fuchsin, whereas the decolorization of other organisms is perfect. The 

 author thinks the method vastly superior to the methods commonly used for this 

 purpose. H. w. c. 



Dains. A Pseudo Tetanus Bacillus Journ. ^^le author studies the case of a bov. 

 Boston Soc. Med. Science. 5: 506, 1901. . ' ' 



wounded by a blank cartridge, m re- 

 gard to whom there were some fears of tetanus. For the purpose of study the 

 wound was examined microscopically, and there was found in it a bacillus hav- 

 ing a great resemblance to tetanus. The patient, however, made a rapid recov- 

 ery and never showed any symptoms of the disease. This led to a special study 

 of this tetanus-like bacillus, which is given in the article referred to. The resem- 

 blance to the tetanus bacillus was very great, the organism having the same gen- 

 eral appearance, and producing spores on the end in the typical manner. It 

 differed, however, from the tetanus bacillus chiefly in the following points : It is 

 decolorized by Gram's method, while the tetanus bacillus is not. The flagella 

 are less numerous than those of tetanus bacilli. It is not pathogenic for guinea 

 pigs, while the tetanus bacillus is markedly pathogenic for these animals. Its 

 growth in glucose and stab culture is wholly unlike the growth of the tetanus 

 bacillus, and it does not liquefy gelatin, while the tetanus bacillus does. The 

 organism is quite different, evidently, from the tetanus organism which it so 

 closely resembles. h. w. c. 



Poynton and Paine. The Etiology of Rheumatic These authors endeavor to confirm, if 

 Fever. Lancet, 1900. 



possible, the claim that rheumatic fever 



is a disease due to micro-organisms. By proper culture methods they succeeded 

 in isolating from several cases of rheumatic fever a bacterium in the form of a 

 coccus, with a diameter of .5 pi, which does not color with the Gram method, and 

 does not grow in ordinary culture media. The organism does grow readily in a 

 culture medium of bouillon and milk, with the addition of a little lactic acid. 

 This organism they found in a variety of exudates in the bodies studied, in that 

 of the pericardium, in the heart's blood, etc. They do not usually find it in the 

 tissues themselves. Experiments of inoculating animals with the pericardial 

 fluid from individuals suffering from this disease resulted in the development in 

 the animals of an infection which has many of the distinctive characteristics of 

 rheumatic fever, and which the authors naturally infer is the same disease. Es- 

 sentially the same results were obtained by inoculating bacteria cultures. The 

 coccus grown on agar tubes was inoculated into the veins of rabbits, and this 

 was followed by manifest disturbances which were of a nature to indicate to the 

 authors that they were dealing with an infection similar to rheumatic fever, and 

 produced by the coccus in question. The authors think their organism identi- 

 cal with that previously found by Achalme and others, and regard their observa- 

 tions, therefore, as a confirmation of the view that this disease is a bacterial dis- 

 ease, produced by the micro-organism which they have studied. h. w. c. 



