1000 RECORD OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



generating substance and the nutrient fluid influence the growth and 

 the vigour of bacteria. 



Further experiments were made by the author with the bacteria 

 of sour milk. He found in it the sphasro-bacteria described by 

 Pasteur, whose developments he followed out. Sowings in different 

 nutrient fluids also produced a more or less abundant growth of them. 

 In boiled urine they developed with especial vigour ; but after a 

 fortnight the alkaline fermentation was not produced ; while by the 

 bacteria of urine it was brought about in a few days. In urine there 

 arose spontaneously at first small spherules, succeeded by small rods, 

 which at length developed into long filaments and vibrios. The 

 experiments made with these urine-bacteria, which he placed in the 

 most various nutrient fluids, gave very diiferent and partially 

 irreconcilable results, so that the author was led to the conclusion 

 that a variety of bacteria arise spontaneously in urine, one of which 

 often smothers another. 



Finally, he followed the development of bacteria-sowings from 

 various generating substances in unboiled flesh - water and in 

 Bucholtz's fluid, in boiled flesh-water, solution of peptone, and 

 solution of isinglass. Tho peptone-solution, which he strongly 

 recommends for bacteria-culture, he made of • 08 gr. pepsin, 4 cc. 

 33 per cent, hydrochloric acid, and 20 gr. fibrin in 400 cc. distilled 

 water, leaving the mixture some hours in a warm place until the 

 fibrin was dissolved, the solution then neutralized with ammonia, 

 filtered, and finally sterilized by boiling. The solution, which is at 

 first turbid, soon becomes perfectly clear from an abiindant white 

 precipitate of parapeptone ; and the presence of bacteria can then be 

 recognized without the Microscope by the turbidity which always 

 again results. 



The following are given by the author as the most important 

 results obtained : — 



1. He believes in the existence of a number of different species of 

 bacteria. 



2. He considers the fact that no development takes place in 

 Bucholtz's solution to be no proof that active bacteria and bacterial 

 germs are not present in a sowing. 



3. Sphfero-bacteria are partly indcj^endcnt forms, partly stages of 

 development of bacillar bacteria. 



4. The spontaneous infection of the nutrient fluid usually takes 

 place from the access of spores from tho atmosphere, and not from the 

 water used in the fluid. 



5. The final results of the development of bacteria are strongly 

 refractive, longish oval resting-spores. 



6. The nutrient fluid employed is not a matter of indifiPerence. 



Influence of Schizomycetes on the Development of Yeast.* — 

 According to experiments carried on by M. Hayduck, the presence of 

 Schizomycetes exercises an injurious influence on the propagation of 

 yeast and the process of fermentation. The cause is probably simply 



* 'Zeitschr. f. Spiritusindustric,' iii. (18S0) p. 202. See ' Bot. Centralbl.,' i. 

 (1880) p. 866. 



