and Laboratory Methods. 2297 



the matching color on the card is isolated by a small card with a window cut in 

 it. The tube and card are viewed in strong diffuse daylight. 



The Milton Bradley color scheme has not, however, proved satisfactory for 

 measuring the reduction of nitrates. A large majority of the tubes tested lay 

 somewhere between the Reds and Violet Reds of the scale, and could not be well 

 matched with either. I, therefore, sought for some other standards and found 

 more suitable ones in the book of standard colors published by Louis Prang, 

 Boston, Mass. This system has no definite scientific basis. The hues are less 

 pure and the tints less bright and clear than in the Bradley system. The 

 gradations, however, are more numerous. Of the seven plates in the Prang 

 book, the last five, including the darker shades, are not needed. On the " pure 

 color " plate and the " first shade " plate the colors produced by both the indol 

 and the nitrate test can be quickly and easily matched. As far as this standard 

 has been used, it has been found to be a satisfactory system of record and an 

 important aid in forming definite ideas as to the behavior of micro-organisms 

 under various conditions. h. w. c. 



Stokes, William R. An Inquiry into the Role The author undertakes to determine 



of Domestic Animals in the Causation of how far SOme of the COmmon domestic 

 Typhoid Fever. Maryland Med. Jour., i goo. . , , i • ^i t 



^^ ^ J . y animals may be concerned in the dis- 



tribution of the typhoid bacillus. For this purpose he uses chickens, white rats, 

 rabbits, guinea pigs, calves and pigs. In all cases he has fed the typhoid bacil- 

 lus in considerable quantity to the animal, and at varying intervals has studied 

 the faeces for the purpose of disclosing, if possible, the presence of typhoid 

 bacillus. He finds that the typhoid bacillus disappears with extreme rapidity 

 in the intestine of these animals, and in the faeces ; from none of them is he able 

 to isolate living typhoid bacilli. He concludes, therefore, that the dejecta of 

 these animals play no very great part in the distribution of typhoid fever. 



H. w. c. 



Lesage and Delmar. Contribution a I'etude de The authors have made a bacteriolog- 

 ladiarrheedes jeunes veaux. Ann. d. 1' Inst. ical Study of a disease more or less 

 Part XV, 417, iQoi. , , . , . 



common among young cattle, which is 



somewhat similar to what is known as " white scour." This disease has pre- 

 viously been studied by a number of bacteriologists, who reached the conclusion 

 that it is produced by certain varieties of the common B. coli. These authors 

 differ totally from this conclusion. They find, it is true, that the B. coli is almost 

 always present in the cases of this disease, but the universal presence of this 

 organism is no special argument, inasmuch as it is so widely distributed. They 

 find, however, another form of bacterium present ; a coccus, which they say be- 

 longed to a group called Pasteurella. This organism, from the very outset, they 

 regarded as suspicious, and they instituted a series of careful experiments which 

 convinced them that this, and not the B. coli, is the cause of the disease in 

 question. This organism is capable of producing the disease in experiment 

 animals, when properly inoculated, and is always found characteristic of the dis- 

 ease. The disease is somewhat rapid, proceeding to its crisis, sometimes in one 

 to two days and sometimes in eight to fifteen days. It is especially character- 

 istic of young cows, and is believed by the authors to find entrance into the ani- 

 mal by means of the umbilical cord, and thence into the blood. In animals 

 slightly older the inoculation is chiefly through the nasal membranes. It pro- 

 duces a septicaemia of the blood, which progresses until usually it is eventually 

 fatal. The authors have attempted to find some method of vaccination against 

 this disease, but, although their results are promising, they are not, as yet, 

 especially successful. h. w. c. 



