BOTANY. 397 



ular species to be studied. The article is illustrated with numerous 

 micro-photographs. In his paper on the Etiology of Splenic Fever, 

 Koch attacks the views of Pasteur and other French writers, as well as 

 those of Buchner, with regard to the specific identity of Bacillus an- 

 thracis and B. subtilis, and denies that earth-worms have the influence 

 in spreading the disease which was attributed to them by Pasteur. He 

 distinguishes between splenic fever and malignant oedema, which ho 

 thinks have been confounded by Pasteur, and maintains that the Bacilli 

 which produce the two diseases are distinct, and he even hints that 

 there are probably other diseases of a similar nature which will also be 

 shown to be producetl by distinct forms of Bacillus. In his paper on 

 Progressive Virulence and Acquired Adaptability in Septicoimia, Gaflfky 

 affirms the constancy of pathogenic organisms and controverts the views 

 of Gramitz in Virchow's Archiv, on the Theory of protective inocula- 

 tion, who there states that not only bacterial forms but even harmless 

 molds may, by changing the temperature and in other ways, be con- 

 verted into dangerous organisms. With the exception of a paper by 

 Loffler, on the Immunity Question, most of the remaining articles in the 

 Mittheiluugen relate to means of disinfection, which is best accomp- 

 lished by the use of steam, which destroys the spores of bacteria more 

 quickly than hot water, sulphurous acid, or other disinfectants. In the 

 Medizinische Wochenschrift is a short paper by Huber, Experimentelle 

 Studien ilher Milzhrand, in which, among other facts, he states that the 

 Bacilli of splenic fever do not pass through the placenta of the mother 

 to the foetus. In the Zeitschrift fllr klinische Medizin is a paper by 

 Nothnagel on the lower vegetable organisms found in the intestinal dis- 

 charges of man, in which he mentions the occurrence of a form resem- 

 bling Clostridium hutyricum Prazmowski, which is turned blue by iodine. 

 Dr. G. M. Sternberg, at the meeting of the Am. Ass. Adv. Sci., at Cin- 

 ciannti, read a jiaper on Bacterial Organisms found on exposed Mucous 

 Surfaces and in the Alimentary Canal of Healthy Individuals, giving the 

 mode of examination and the results of observations made at the Johns 

 Hopkins University. 



The work done by French writers on bacteria has related principally 

 to the means of diminishing the virulence of the poison in different dis- 

 eases and to inoculation in splenic fever and chicken cholera. At the 

 International Medical Congress, in London, Pasteur delivered an ad- 

 dress in which he summed up the result of his researches concerning 

 inoculation in chicken cholera and splenic fever. The Comptes Eendus 

 contain numerous original communications by Pasteur, Chaveau, Cham- 

 berland, Eaux, and others. In a communication on the duration of life 

 of germs, Pasteur, in connection with Chamberland and Kaux, found 

 that guinea pigs died of splenic fever when inoculated with particles 

 of soil taken from fields where infected animals had been buried twelve 

 years previous. Furthermore, sheep which were allowed to resort to 

 the same fields, on which, however, as no grass was growing, they 



