1914] Glaser—Bacterial Diseases of Caterpillars 189 
for a scientific treatment of the subject have been omitted. Apart 
from the pyocyanin test and the mention of temperatures all phy- 
sical and biochemical characters have been ignored and the ques- 
tion which I would like to ask is: How do Picard and Blanc know 
that they were dealing with the same organism at all times? 
Many of the authors reviewed seem to agree in one point, 
namely, that the flacherie-like diseases are primarily intestinal 
affections and that the bacteria concerned are found outside of 
the intestine, in the body cavity, only during the later stages when 
the alimentary canal ruptures. 
Among certain human diseases somewhat analogous cases can 
be found. In typhoid fever, for instance, the main lesions of the 
disease occur in the intestine. Cholera is purely an intestinal 
affection characterized by diarrhcea in the form of the so-called 
rice water discharges. Among insects, European foul brood, a 
disease in bees caused by Bacillus pluton, is another example of 
such an intestinal malady. 
While it therefore seems possible that some of the caterpillar 
diseases now grouped under the name of flacherie are intestinal 
disturbances caused by toxic products liberated within the ali- 
mentary tract by specific bacteria, it is not at all unlikely that 
other diseases affect other parts of the body such as the disease 
described by Picard and Blane. The entire subject, however, is 
still one for controversy. 
BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
1870. Pasteur, L.M. Etudes sur la maladie des versa soie. La Flacherie. Tome 
ler., pp. 207-317; planches 10. 
1886. Forbes, S. A. Studies on the contagious diseases of insects. Bull. of the 
Ill. State Lab. Nat. Hist., Vol. I], pp. 257-321; figs. 2. 
1893. Tangl, F. Bakteriologischer Beitrag zur Nonnenraupen Frage. Forst- 
wissens. Centralblatt; Bd. XV, S. 209-230. 
1893. Tubeuf, C. von. Ueber die Erfolglosigkeit der Nonnenvernichtung durch 
kiinstliche Bakterien Infektionen. Forstlich. Naturwiss. Zeitschr., 
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1893. Wachtl und Kornauth. Beitrige zur Kenntniss der Morphologie, Bi- 
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