2250 Journal of Applied Microscopy 



advisable, as a matter of routine, to isolate all well persons in infected families, 

 schools, or institutions. One member of the committee differs from this to a 

 slight extent. The importance of these conclusions in determining the rules for 

 quarantine, adopted by health boards, is very manifest. The rest of the paper, 

 which is a rather lengthy one, is devoted to the bacteriological study of the types 

 of bacteria which come under the general group of diphtheria organisms. The 

 authors describe seven types of bacilli, which, in general, may be found grouped 

 together, of which the first three only are regarded as typical, virulent diphtheria 

 bacilli. The report is reprinted from the Journal of the Massachusetts Associa- 

 tion of Boards of Health, July, 1902, and is one that should be thoroughly 

 studied by all interested in the problems of public health. h. \v. c. 



Van Houten. A Successful Attempt to Culti- Although many attempts to cultivate 

 vate the Bacillus Lepras. Jour, of Path. ^.^g leprosy bacillus have given appar- 

 andBac. 8: 260,1902. , .. , , , . , . 



ently positive results, the author of this 



paper is inclined to doubt whether any of them are sure enough to leave it cer- 

 tain that the bacillus has actually been cultivated. He adopts a somewhat 

 new method of study and is confident that he has succeeded in obtaining pure 

 cultures of the bacillus. His method is to inoculate broth with leprous material, 

 and for this purpose he finds that the best success is obtained by a mixture of 

 fish broth and beef broth, which must be slightly alkaline. In such a broth the 

 bacilli grow readily, many of them showing motility. From such a broth he is 

 able to obtain sub-cultures in a similar mixture, and, after several cultivations, 

 sub-cultures can be obtained in beef broth. The pure cultures agree in morpho- 

 logical characters with the leprous bacillus, but the chief evidence that he has 

 succeeded in his work is obtained by the action of the leprous serum upon cultures 

 of the organism. These bacilli, when mixed with diluted human serum, show the 

 Pfeiffer-Bordet reaction. This reaction, which destroys the bacilli, occurs both 

 with ordinary serum and with leprous serum, but the reaction is much more 

 marked with leper serum than with the ordinary human serum, from which he 

 concludes that his organism is the specific agent of leprosy. h. w. c. 



Kasperek. Cent. f. Bac. u. Par. O. 13 : 383, Y)r. Kasperek has described a very in- 

 1902. . ^ . •' 



genious funnel devised for the purpose 



of filtering gelatine or agar that needs to be kept warm during filtering. The 

 piece of apparatus consists of an ordinary glass funnel, in which are placed 

 several layers of asbestos paper, fastened together with water glass, the asbestos 

 paper conforming to the shape of the filter. Between the layers of the asbestos 

 there are wound about three meters of a .3 mm. nickel wire, so wound around 

 that the difterent coils are thoroughly isolated from each other. The two ends 

 of the wire are connected with binding screws. To one of the binding screws is 

 attached an electric wire from an electric current, and to the other a wire that is 

 arranged to pass through a series of ordinary incandescent lights. By connect- 

 ing the wires with the electric current and turning on a single light, the filter is 

 warmed to a temperature of 42°. By connecting with two lights of similar power 

 the filter is warmed to 60°, and by the addition of a third light of 16 candle power, 

 a temperature of 70° can be obtained. This filter is used in the ordinary way 

 and is extremely convenient for filtering material that needs to be kept warm. 



H. w. c. 



