and Laboratory Methods. 2153 



Flexner On Thrombi Composed of Agglutin- yj^g phenomena of agglutination has 

 ated Red Blood Corpuscles. Preliminary * °° 



Communication. Univ. of Penna. Med. been considerably Studied of late and 

 Bull. 16: 324-326, 1902. much that is new has been added to 



our knowledge of it. For example, Flexner and Noguchi have proved that the 

 agglutinating principle for blood corpuscles in snake venoms is distinct from the 

 dissolving substance. This has been observed in ordinary hemagglutination as 

 seen in normal sera. It has also been shown that agglutination and lysis of 

 bacteria are produced by two different groups of substances. Within the last 

 twelve months it has been found that the products of some bacterial cultures are 

 hemolytic, and the temperature seems to play an important part in this 

 phenomena, for it is usually absent when the freezing point is approached. 

 Agglutination, however, is not prevented by such temperatures. 



The occurrence of thrombi, composed of agglutinated red blood corpuscles, 

 does not seem to have been previously noted. Flexner's attention to this 

 phenomena in bacterial disease came from his study of a case of typhoid fever 

 which presented such a thrombus in the dilated veins of the intestinal mucosa. 

 The mass composing the thrombus was made up of globules of different sizes 

 showing different degrees of refraction and varying staining properties. On care- 

 ful study it was found to be composed of altered red blood corpuscles. Such a 

 thrombus was searched for in twenty additional cases of typhoid fever, but no 

 such convincing instance as the above was found. In two other affections the 

 thrombi were seen. Flexner is inclined to the view that the hyaline glomerular 

 thrombi consist of red blood corpuscles. So in thrombi in other than bacterial 

 diseases, evidence was obtained that some are similarly constituted. A case of 

 eclampsia is cited in which they were found in the liver. He suggests that some 

 thrombi described by other writers may be of this nature. He was able to pro- 

 duce non-bacterial agglutinative thrombi in animals by the injection of ricin, ether 

 and alien globulicidal blood sera. 



In his conclusions he states that these thrombi are not uncommon in infectious 

 diseases in man and animals, that they may present, when old or when the 

 agojlutination is compact, the appearances to which the name of hyaline thrombi 

 has been applied ; that the so-called " fibrin ferment thrombi " are probably 

 nothing else than these thrombi. w. r. p. 



CURRENT BACTERIOLOGICAL LITERATURE. 



H. W. CONN, Wesleyan University. 



Separates of Papers and Boolts on Bacteriology should be Sent for Review to H. W. Conn, 

 Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn. 



, ,,. ,,.,.. , ^.-, Hiss has shown that it is possible by a 



Hiss. New and Simple Media for the Differ- . . 



entiation of the Colonies of Typhoid, Colon very Simple modification of ordinary 

 and Allied Bacilli. Jour. Med. Research, 8: culture media to differentiate the colo- 

 148, 1902. 



nies of the typhoid bacillus and the 



colon bacillus upon ordinary plates. The media which he uses for this purpose 

 are several in number. All of them, however, contain agar, and they are quite 



