594 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



Bacillus isolated from Rhinoscleroma.* — B. Galli-Valerio observed 

 in cover-slip preparations from portions of Rhinoscleroma rounded rods 

 0' 6-1* 5 jx, lying either free or included within cells; stained with 

 fnchsin and methylen-blue a capsule was noted, but this was absent 

 from preparations made from cultures ; the rods do not stain by 

 Gram's method ; on agar plates at 37° C. the bacillus formed round 

 raised white colonies ; growth on gelatin caused no liquefaction ; milk 

 was not coagulated ; there was no production of indol ; there was slow 

 fermentation of lactose and glucose ; inoculation experiments were all 

 negative. 



Bacillus paratyphosus B e cane.j — W. X. Klimenko gives an 

 account of a bacillus isolated from the liver and mesentery of a young 

 dog. The author shows how entirely it agrees with the B. paraty- 

 phosus B and B. enteriditis of Gaertner in its morphological and cultural 

 characteristics ; but whereas the serum from the dog agglutinated the 

 bacillus in dilutions of 1 : 1600 in 2 hours, it agglutinated B. paraty- 

 phosus B only in dilutions of 1 : 800 in the same time, and failed to 

 agglutinate B. enteriditis even in dilutions of only 1 : 50. The author 

 considers this organism is therefore more closely related to B. paraty- 

 phosus B than to B. enteriditis of Gaertner, and names it B. paraty- 

 phosus B e cane. 



Agglutination Properties of Ficker's Paratyphus diagnostica. :j: — 

 S. Minelli finds that the agglutinability of Paratyphus diagnostica 

 A and B, at room temperatures, after 12 hours was only slightly less 

 than that of young living cultures of B. paratyphosus A and B under 

 similar conditions. In both cases the agglutinative property was less 

 after 3 hours' incubation at 37° C. The author considers that the 

 diagnostica may be of valuable service to clinicians. 



Bacillus putrificus.§ — Bienstock describes this organism as a strict 

 anaerobe that decomposes albumen with the formation of putrefactive 

 products, H 2 S, peptone, leucin, tyrosin, fatty and aromatic acids, 

 amines, etc. ; no putrefaction occurs without this organism ; it acts only 

 on proteids, not attacking hydrocarbons ; it is not pathogenic. When 

 cultivated in vitro together with certain intestinal microbes, its property 

 of causing putrefaction is completely arrested, but its growth is un- 

 influenced. The author agrees with Conradi, who considers that this 

 effect is due to the anti-putrefactive properties of the autotoxins formed 

 by the B. coli, and he believes that it is owing to this antagonistic action 

 of B. coli that he was never able to detect the presence of B. putrificus in 

 the stools of healthy persons. 



Relation of the Sensibilisatrice (amboceptor) to the Alexine 

 (complement).! — J. Bordet and F. P. Gay agree with Ehrlich and 

 Sachs that the blood-cells of the guinea-pig are hasniolysed in a mixture 

 of fresh horse-serum and ox-serum previously heated to 56° C, although 

 they can resist this if they are subjected successively to the contact of 

 ox-serum and horse-serum. The interpretation proposed by Ehrlich 



* Centralbl. Bakt., lte Abt. Orig., xli. (1906) p. 645. 



t Tom. cifc., p. 617. J Tom. cit., p. 583. 



§ Ann. Inst. Pasteur, xx. (1906) p. 407. || Tom. cit., p. 467. 



