44 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [Fel.ruai-y, 



bacillus was that the colonies did not flow together but remained sepa- 

 rate. The results of the examination of sputum had been entii^ely con- 

 firmed by post mortem examinations made by Pfeifter in the bodies of 

 six patients which had died of influenza. In all, the influenza bacilli 

 were found in the aflected parts. 



" He then tried to produce influenza in monkeys, rabbits, guinea pigs, 

 rats, pigeons, and mice by inoculating the bacilli. He had succeeded 

 on January 7 with monkeys and rabbits." 



Dr. Canon examined the blood of influenza patients suffering from 

 fever under the microscope, and having found organisms previously 

 unknown, compared them with Pfeifter's new organisms and found them 

 identical. As soon as recovery from fever took place, these bacilli dis- 

 appeared from the bl6od. and they were found only while influenza 

 patients were feverish. Their numbers varied considerably. Dr. Canon 

 is satisfied that the detection of this l)acillus in the blood of a feverish 

 patient is a sufficient proof of influenza. 



It now comes out that Dr. Pfeifler saw and photographed influenza 

 bacilli two years ago without knowing what they were nor suspecting 

 their meaning. 



Souring of Milk. — A. L. Treadwell has experimented with milk 

 and electrical discharges and thinks that a slight hastening in the time 

 of souring is produced. But if the milk is first sterilized no souring 

 will result. He thinks therefore that souring is due to the more rapid 

 growth of micro-organisms under the influence of free oxygen gener- 

 ated by the electricity. 



Chemically Pure Water may contain large quantities of microbes. 

 Lortet has found them in such water from Lake Geneva by allowing 

 them to settle to the bottom. He identified numerous micro-organisms, 

 including the typhoid bacillus. Altehoefer uses peroxide of hydrogen 

 for disinfecting such water. He finds that i part to 1000 will in 24 

 hours destroy all germs. This is a harmless and extremely economical 

 method. 



Beer May Contain Bacteria. — Zeidler found in a beer that had 

 become cloudy what he thought might be Bacterium ternio. In 

 gelatin along the inoculation track arose dirty yellow granular colonies, 

 and the gelatin liquified after some da^s. On potato he got a dirty 

 yellowish-brown growth. Alcoholic fermentation in the beer destroyed 

 the organisms. Two other organisms of uncertain character were dis- 

 covered. 



Carbon Favorable to Growth of Micro-organisms. — With a 

 a Zeiss -J^ oil-immersion lens. Dr. JeaflVeson of Newcastle-on-Tyne, 

 has examined the bronchial secretions from an influenza patient who 

 lived in a very smoky district of a very smoky city ; and he found 

 micrococci in unusually large numbers. The finely divided smoke and 

 coal dust entering the lungs is not equally distributed and collects in 

 dense patches. Wherever these patches were densest, there the 

 micrococci were thickest and presented as to form the appearance of 

 zoogloea-like masses. He infers that finely subdivided carbon may 

 favor the development of micro-organisms, and that this may explain 

 the excess of throat and lung diseases in smoky cities. — Lancet^ Jan. 

 23. r8g2. 



