ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 91 



pathogenic for mice, and in strong doses also for guinea-pigs, its virulence 

 being increased by repeated transmission through these animals ; it has 

 specific agglutinating properties, by which it may be differentiated from 

 other streptococci. The author considers that it is commonly present in 

 the intestine of the horse, that it is usually harmless, but that under 

 certain conditions, either alone or in conjunction with B. coli, it becomes 

 harmful and infects the animal. 



Variety of Zoogleic Tuberculosis.* — J. Cagnetto describes a case 

 of zoogleic tuberculosis attacking a guinea-pig, which showed many 

 points of resemblance to the case of pseudo-glanders. At the autopsy 

 purulent nodules of varying sizes were seen on the surface and in the 

 depth of the liver and spleen, between the serous layers of the mesentery, 

 and in the lungs. A film preparation made from the exudate, stained 

 with Loeffler's blue, showed that the pus was composed of polymorpho- 

 nuclear leucocytes, mononuclear cells, and lymphocytes, but no giant 

 cells. Included in, but more often lying free between the cells, were 

 large and small bacilli, some resembling cocci ; these stain badly with 

 Loeffler's blue ; they had no tendency to form chains or threads. 

 Cultures made from the pus in neutral pepton broth, soon became 

 clouded at 35° C, and after 36 hours an iridescent pellicle was formed, 

 which later sank as a grey flocculent deposit ; the culture had no odour ; 

 in glucose, saccharose, and lactose broth there is a strong production of 

 acid ; there is no formation of indol. In gelatin stab cultures, small 

 white colonies appear along the track, the medium not undergoing 

 liquefaction, and no gas being formed. It grows slowly in milk without 

 changing its reaction ; after 6-8 days at 35° C. the liquid separates 

 into a layer of serum and a flocculent portion of coagulated casein. On 

 potato, by the second day, there appeared a moist grey growth that later 

 assumed an orange-yellow colour. The chief morphological character 

 of the organism is its pleomorphism, varying from coccal forms to 

 round-ended rods 3/a long by 0'7/n-O'V broad, showing two and three 

 vacuoles ; the rods stain with ordinary dyes, but not by Gram ; there is 

 slight motility in hanging drop ; no spores have been demonstrated ; 

 vitality and virulence are long retained in artificial media. It is patho- 

 genic for pigeons and white mice, but especially for guinea-pigs, in 

 which animals it produces an orchitis like that produced by the B. mallei. 



The author considers that this organism does not belong to any of 

 the three types of pseudo-tubercle bacilli as defined by Preisz, but 

 should be regarded as a pseudo-glanders bacillus. 



Observations on types of Bacillus Pestis.f — E. Klein has 

 described two types of Bacillus pestis differing in morphological, cul- 

 tural, and physiological characteristics. (1) The human type of 

 cylindrical bacilli, very virulent for man and for rodents, and showing 

 granular opaque colonies on gelatin. (2) The rat type of oval or coccal- 

 like bacilli, with tendency to involution forms, showing translucent 

 growth on gelatin, and having markedly less virulence for guinea-pigs 

 and presumably also for man, and which rapidly lose their virulence on 



* Ann. Inst. Pasteur, xix. (1905) p. 449. 



t Local Gov. Board Supp. Medical Officer's Rep., 1903-4, p. 368. 



