ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 89 



tucky, a bacillus, 5 /*-8/z. long, 1*5/* broad, that produces on Soy agar 

 (a solid medium of agar added to an infusion made from the roots of 

 the Soy bean with ^ p.c. saccharose and £ p.c. asparagin) a characteristic 

 raspberry-red pigment that later acquires an iridescent lustre, but though 

 growing, yet with difficulty, on other media such as ordinary agar, 

 gelatin, potato, etc., no pigment production was observed on any 

 occasion ; in the reservoir water there is a faintly reddish growth form- 

 ing a deposit. The organism is very actively motile, and retains this 

 motility on Soy agar for 5-6 weeks, whereas on ordinary agar all motility 

 is lost within a week ; on ordinary media the bacilli become much dis- 

 torted ; spore formation was not observed ; milk remained uncoagulated, 

 and there was no production of acid or pigment ; gelatin was not 

 liquefied ; in glucose media there was no production of gas. No 

 reference is made as to the pathogenic action of this organism. Growth 

 is most favoured by room temperature ; incubation at 37° C. retards 

 both growth and pigment production. An agar medium made by sub- 

 stituting an infusion of Alfalfa roots for that of the Soy bean roots 

 behaved as ordinary nutrient agar medium, no red pigment being 

 formed. 



Tubercular Disease of Olive Trees..* — R. Schiff-Giorgini finds that 

 the Bacillus olece, which produces this disease, is a motile aerobe, having 

 many flagella, and forming spores. Primitive tubercles occasion the 

 production of metastatic tubercles by the wandering of the active 

 bacteria along the vessels. The bacillus extracts amylase which the 

 plant hydrolyses by a further process. The infected plant protects itself 

 from the action of the parasite by mechanical and chemical means, pro- 

 ducing bast ,and cork at the seat of infection, and " Thyllen " in the 

 invaded vessels ; the sap of the living cells, within a certain distance 

 from the seat of infection, acquires a lytic, agglutinative, and fatal action 

 for the organism ; this action is lost on boiling. 



Bacterium Chlorometamorphicum.t — L. Macchiati isolated from a 

 green deposit in a closed flask of distilled water an organism to which 

 he has given the name B. chlorometamorphicum. It occurred as non- 

 motile rods, 7/A-lO/u. long and 4/a-5/a broad; multiplied only by 

 division : spore formation was never observed. If the aeration of the 

 water is unfavourable, the bacillus appears in a coccal form. It stains 

 readily with aqueous solutions of basic dyes. The author considers that 

 the aerobic form of this bacillus occurs in the air, the anaerobic in the 

 earth. He was unable to show that the green colour of the deposit was 

 due to the organism. 



Anaerobic Organism Resembling the Influenza Bacillus. J — V. K. 

 Russ observed short rods with bipolar staining, together with short 

 streptococcal chains in pus obtained from an abscess in the buttock ; 

 aerobic and anaerobic cultures were made on blood-, serum-, glycerin-, 

 and glucose-agar plates, and incubated at 37° C. The aerobic cultures 

 gave negative results, but on the anaerobic glucose-agar plates after 

 three days there appeared a number of very small round dew-drop-like 



* Centralbl. Bakt., 2te Abt., xv. (1905) p. 200. 



t Tom. cit., p. 268. 



\ Op. cit., Orig., xxxix. (1905) p. 357. 



