710 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



not as results of involution and degeneration, but as due to physiological 

 variations in the permeability of the body-membrane of the organism. 



Disease of Guinea-pigs that resembles Plague.'"" — K. Byloff has iso- 

 lated from guinea-pigs a bacillus that produces symptoms and morbid 

 appearances resembling those of bubonic plague. The organism is very 

 slightly motile, and a single flagellum was demonstrated by Zettnow's 

 method. The site of infection is in the digestive tract, a general 

 infection spreading hence by the blood and lymph channels. The 

 bacillus should be classed. with the bacteria of hamiorrhagic septicaemia. 



The author contrasts this organism with B. pseudotuberculosis of 

 other writers, and has named it B. pestis intestinaUs cavm. 



Bi-polar Staining of the Plague Microbe.f — X. v. Westenrijk finds 

 that the superficial layers of an agar culture of this organism show 

 mostly cocco-bacillary forms with marked bi-polar staining, the deeper 

 layers showing bacillary forms mostly uniformly stained or showing 

 vacuoles. After cultivating the organism in atmospheres of hydrogen, 

 carbonic dioxide, and oxygen, the author considers that the variation in 

 form and staining reaction is due to the abundance or otherwise of 

 oxygen. The vacuolation of the microbe is the result of its metabolism, 

 and is dependent and proportional to it. The bi-polar staining is the 

 result of a physiological plasmolysis. 



Action on Bactena of Electrical Discharges.} — A. G. Foulerton 

 and A. M. Kellas have shown that when bacteria suspended in water are 

 exposed in an atmosphere of air or of pure nitrogen, to the action of 

 electrical discharges of high potential and rapid frequency, sufficient 

 quantities of nitrous and nitric acids are taken up in the solution within 

 fifteen minutes to sterilise the emulsion. If the discharge takes place 

 in an atmosphere of hydrogen, or carbonic dioxide, or carbonic monoxide, 

 sufficient peroxide of hydrogen is formed after a time to exercise a 

 distinct germicidal action. In no case did the authors find any evidence 

 that under the time conditions, the electrical current or its discharge 

 had any direct injurious influence on the bacteria, apart from the 

 accompanying formation of chemical germicidal substances, and from 

 whatever effects may be exercised by the heat rays. 



Streptococci Pathogenic for Man.§ — F. W. Andrewes and T. J. 

 Horder have made a detailed study of Streptococci, more especially of 

 those pathogenic for man. The authors have grouped these organisms 

 into five main types, Streptococcus pyogenes, Streptococcus salwarius, 

 Streptococcus angiosus, Streptococcus focalis, and Pneumococcus, accord- 

 ing to their reactions with Gordon's nine tests, viz., reactions to milk, 

 neutral-red, saccharose, lactose, raffinose, inulin, salicin, coniferin, 

 mannite : their growth on gelatin ; their morphology (longus or brevis) ; 

 and their pathogenicity. 



Referring to the bearing of their observations on the treatment of 

 streptococcal infections, the authors point out that the polyvalent sera 



* Centralbl. Bakt., lte Abt. Orig., xlii. (1906) p. 5. 

 t Tom. cit., pp. 181-283. 



♦ Proc. Roy. Soc, Series B. lxxviii. (1906) p. 60. 

 § Lancet, 1906, ii. pp. 708-855. 



