398 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [Nov. 



They are differentiated as follows: 1. Smegrna bacilli, 

 stained by anilin dyes, lose their stain on two-minute treat- 

 ment with acidulated alcohol, while tubercle bacilli do not 

 thus destain. 2. Smeg^ma bacilli lose their stain under 

 Gram's stain, while tubercle bacilli retain anilin-fuchsin 

 staining-. 3. A cover-g-lass preparation of tubercle bacilli 

 carried throug-h the flame ten times and stained with Ziehl's 

 solution, presents the bacillus in a somewhat g^ranular form 

 or as composed of a succession of spherules; the smeg^ma 

 bacillus remains a solid rod under the same treatment. 



Leyden records several mistakes made before the identi- 

 fication of the smeg"ma bacillus. Konig- publishes a case 

 of enlarg-ed kidney, with tubercle bacilli (so-called) in the 

 urineand unmistakable pulmonary phthisis. The tubercle 

 bacilli were, however, smeg^ma bacilli, and the renal tumor 

 was sarcoma. Senator has seen many cases of alleg^ed 

 tubercular cA^stitis recover, which he could explain only on 

 the assumption that smeg^ma bacilli contaminated the urine 

 of a vulg-ar cystitis. This author has written on the dif- 

 ferentiation between the two varieties of bacilli in his con- 

 tribution to Nothnag-el's System of Special Patholog-y and 

 Therapy, now issuing- from the German press. 



Fraenkel avoided many mistakes by carefully cleansing- 

 theg-enitaliaand then catheterizing-. He has used Ehrlich's 

 stain (g-entian violet) for tubercle bacilli, which method, 

 on destaining^ with nitric acid, leaves smeg-ma micro-org-an- 

 isms without stain. The "caterpillar"-like arrang-ement 

 of the tubercle bacilli is not observed in the other g-enus. — 

 Medicine. 



Microscopical Examination of Flour. — Lang-e g-ives the 

 following- method: Boil the sample in a hard-g-lass test- 

 tube with 20 ccm. concentrated sulphuric acid and 4 g-m. 

 copper sulphate (free from water) until the liquid becomes 

 entirely clear, Dilute the liquid with 250 ccm. distilled 

 water, using- a conical settling- g-lass. Let stand for a few 

 minutes and with a pipette withdraw the precipitate. The 

 latter oonsists of the hairs and silicious cells of the g-rain, 

 the nature of which latter may thus be determined. — 

 National Druggist. 



