180 THE MICROSCOPICAL NEWS. 
fidently leave these suggestions with those who havecharge of 
such an important undertaking. Judging from Dr. Hudson’s 
writings he is an enthusiastic lover of nature, and having that one 
touch which makes us all akin, I feel sure that he will do all that 
man can do to bring his work within the reach of his less favoured 
brethren. 
MICROCOCCI OF PNEUMONIA.* 
FRIEDLANDER has examined the micrococci contained in 
. the alveolar exudation, and in the fluid of the lymph passages 
of the lungs, in cases of acute genuine pneumonia. Their presence 
was subsequently determined in the pneumonial fluid taken from 
the living patient. They were found in the greatest numbers in the 
pleuritic and pericardial exudations, the turbidity of these fluids 
often arising from enormous quantities of the micrococci. All or 
the greater number of these micrococci are surrounded by a more 
or less broad layer resembling an envelope or capsule, coloured 
light blue or red by gentian-violet or fuchsin respectively, and 
usually sharply defined externally. Sometimes each micrococcus 
is surrounded by an envelope of this kind of the same shape ; some- 
times two or three are inclosed in the same envelope; but the 
micrococci of pneumonia are never collected into zooglcea colonies. 
These envelopes are soluble in water and dilute alkalies, but in- 
soluble in acids, and may therefore consist essentially of mucin or 
some similar substance. 
The micrococci are best detected by placing the cover-glass with 
the dried-up fluid, coloured by aniline-water and gentian-violet 
solution, in a watch-glass with alcohol for half a minute, when the 
matrix rapidly loses its colour, the envelopes and micrococci much 
more slowly. The preparation may then be placed in a watch- 
glass with distilled water, examined in water, and afterwards pre- 
served in Canada balsam or dammar lac. The envelopes are also 
coloured by eosin, especially by a weak solution acting for twenty- 
four hours; osmic acid differentiates them sharply, but without 
blackening them. These envelopes appear to be a highly charac- 
teristic peculiarity of the micrococci of pneumonia, never failing in 
acute genuine cases. ‘They probably belong to the acme of that 
disease, not being found after the sixth day. 
If developed by Koch’s process on serum of blood and after- 
* Fortschr. d. Medicin, i. (1883) pp. 715-33 (1 pl.). See Bot. Centralbl., 
Xvii, (1884) p. 50. 
