440 BACTERIA IN INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 



hypodermically into a guinea-pig, which died at the end 

 of some hours. Its blood was found to contain an ex- 

 traordinary quantity of the cryptococcus. A second 

 guinea-pig was inoculated by hypodermic injection with 

 the blood of the first one, and after some hours the 

 animal appeared feverish and oppressed, with cold ears 

 and paws, trembling, and blackish vomiting. It died in 

 a short time, and its blood showed an infinity of the 

 characteristic organisms. 



" Dr. Freire considers that these experiments estab- 

 lish the parasitic nature of yellow fever, arid that the 

 parasite C. Xanthogenicus, is found in every undoubted 

 case of the disease. He has also discovered and is- 

 olated the alkaloid from the black vomit, which he 

 regards as a product or excretion of the microbes. He 

 considers that the color of black vomit is not due to 

 altered blood, but to the cryptococcus. He regards 

 cemeteries as perennial foci of the disease. Some earth 

 was taken from the grave of a man who had been buried 

 a year before. A guinea-pig shut up in a confined 

 space with this earth died in five days. Its blood was 

 literally crammed with the cryptococcus in various stages 

 of evolution ; its urine was albuminous, and its brain 

 and intestines yellow with the peculiar pigment of the 

 microbe." 



The writer is not prepared to estimate the value 

 of the evidence here offered, inasmuch as we are 

 not informed whether the yellow fever blood used 

 in the first inoculation experiment was obtained 

 post mortem or ante mortem. It would be interesting 

 also to know whether the cryptococcus was ob- 

 tained in blood drawn with proper precautions 

 during the lifetime of the patient. While in 



