and Laboratory Methods. -437 



CURRENT BACTERIOLOGICAL LITERATURE. 



H. W. CONN, Wesleyan University. 



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

 Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn. 



Tsiklinsky. Sur la flore microbienne ihermo- In recent j-ears it has become a matter 

 phile du canal Intestinal de I'homme Ann. ^f ^^^^^ interest to determine the char- 

 de 1 Inst. Past. 17 : 217,1903. 



acter of the normal bacteria in the 



human intestine, since many important problems related to the healthfulness of 

 foods are associated with their bacterial content. It has been long known that 

 the intestine commonly contains two bacilli, B. coU communis and B. ladis cBrogenes, 

 and later Tisser has shown that a strictly anaerobic bacillus called B. bifidus is 

 also very common. The author of this article has extended this information by 

 the detection in the intestine of a number of the so-called themophiloiis bacilli. 

 The method of work is simple and consists of inoculating agar tubes and plates 

 with the contents of the intestine and cultivating them at high temperatures, the 

 precaution being necessary to place the plates upside down to prevent the water 

 that collects on the surface from disiributing the bacteria and ruining the plates. 

 The results of the work have shown : 1. There are always present in the intes- 

 tine a considerable number of bacteria which will grow at high temperatures, 50° 

 to 60°. Of these he describes 20 species, some of which grow only at such 

 high temperatures. 2. The bacteria in the intestine differ very markedly in 

 different localities. The study of the contents of the intestine of nursing infants 

 in Paris and in Russia has shown a widely distinct bacteria fauna in the two 

 cases, in which there is only one or possibly two species found in common. His 

 conclusions are : 1. These bacteria play no important part in the chemical 

 changes of digestion. 2. Since some of these bacteria are unable to grow in 

 culture media except at high temperatures there must be conditions in the intes- 

 tine more favorable than in culture media, because they certainly do develop 

 in the intestinal content at a temperature below 50°. 3. Some of these 

 themophilous bacteria are only modified forms of ordinary bacteria. 



II. w. c. 



Marmorek. L'Unite des Streptococques path- The presence of streptococci is an ex- 

 ogenes pour Thomme. Ann. de I'lnst. Past. tremelv common characteristic of quite 

 1902, p. 172. ■' ...... 



a variety of pathological conditions in 



man. They are found in many forms of pus infections, in blood poisoning, in 

 scarlet fever, and. in a large variety of otlier abnormal conditions. The author 

 of this work has conceived the idea of testing a large variety of such strepto- 

 coccic cultures, from different sources, to determine if possible whether they are 

 distinct species or identical. In all he tests 42 different cultures from different 

 sources, including many different pathological conditions in man. The diagno.stic 

 characters which he uses most prominently for their distinction is the hailomysis 

 of rabbit blood and the impossibility of the streptococcus to grow in its own fil- 



