486 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



only when there are many closely applied colonies. It forms yellowish, 

 moist, shining colonies on moist, neutral nutrient agar at 22° 0., and 

 after a few days a yellow colour is diffused through the medium. It 

 grows as a moist, shining yellow brown expansion on potato ; in broth, a 

 grey pellicle is formed, the medium is uniformly clouded, and there is a 

 yellow deposit, and later the liquid acquires a bright yellow colour. Its 

 optimum temperature is 22° C. ; at higher temperatures it forms long 

 rods and threads, with slow, snake-like movements ; in glucose broth it 

 produces no gas ; it forms no indol, even after prolonged growth in 

 pepton-water and broth cultures ; it is a facultative anaerobe ; it grows 

 on mineral media, and in tubes of calcium nitrate there is formation of 

 nitrite. It is killed by exposure to 60° C. for an hour and a half ; in 

 beer containing 4-5 p.c. alcohol its resistance to heat is much diminished, 

 and it is sterilised within half an hour. 



Bacteriology of Summer Diarrhoea of Infants.* — H. de R. Morgan, 

 from the results of an extended examination of the stools from 58 cases, 

 has selected three organisms as possible causes of the disease. Bacillus 

 No. 1, which is not normally present in human stools, sewage, or 

 drinking water, was isolated in 28 cases ; it caused diarrhoea and death 

 in young animals, and could be isolated in pure culture from the spleens ; 

 but in no case did the patient's blood agglutinate this organism. Bacillus 

 No. 3 was isolated in five cases, and in one instance the patient's blood 

 agglutinated this organism, and also the Bacillus typhosus, and it was 

 shown that this bacillus was agglutinated equally well by dysentery 

 (Flexner) serum and by typhoid serum ; this organism was pathogenic 

 to young rats which were fed on it, but produced no diarrhoea. Bacillus 

 No. 4 was isolated in three cases, and was selected chiefly on account of 

 its resemblance to the Flexner group of dysentery bacilli ; this organism 

 was pathogenic to young rats. 



The author regrets that in no case was the blood or the spleen of 

 fatal cases examined bacteriologically. 



Virus of Glanders in Urine.| — G. Cagnetto finds that the Bacillus 

 mallei appears in the urine of animals (horse, donkey, cat, and man) 

 affected with glanders after 30-35 hours, and retains its pathogenic 

 properties for at most 3-4 days, but undergoes remarkable morphological 

 changes and diminution of its virulence. These changes appear much 

 sooner in the urine of infected animals than in the urine of healthy 

 animals, probably on account of some specific antibody that passes over 

 from the blood into the urine. 



The diminished vitality of B. mallei when in contact with the urine 

 of infected animals is more marked in regard to its behaviour on artifi- 

 cial media than in its pathogenic action. The bacillus loses its virulence 

 completely in horse urine when dried, after 20 hours. 



Bacillus chores paralytica ovis.J — D. J. Hamilton describes an 

 organism found in the peritoneal fluid of sheep affected with " louping- 



* Brit. Med. Journ., 1906, i., p. 908. 

 f Centralbl. Bakt., V" Abt. Orig., xli. (1906) p. 173. 



% Board of Agriculture Report, 1906. See also Brit. Med. Journ., 1906, i. 

 p. 1472. 



