412 BACTERIA IN INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 



studied by Luginbiihl, Weigert, Hallier, and Colin. 

 These micro-organisms possess the characters of all the 

 spherical bacteria, and- are found in the variolous pus- 

 tules, the rete Malpiyhii, the liver, the spleen, the kid- 

 neys, and the lymphatic ganglia. We can only insist 

 upon the fact of the concomitance of the variola and 

 the presence of micrococci, since experiment cannot be 

 resorted to in this disease, of which the complete evolu- 

 tion occurs only in man. We also find in vaccine lymph 

 micrococci analogous, in every point of view, to those of 

 variola. Cohu considers them both, not as distinct 

 species, but as two races of the same species, the 

 Micrococcus vaccince." (Magnin.) 



" M. Straus presented to a recent meeting of the 

 Socie'te' de Biologie at Paris a series of microscopical 

 preparations of the vaccinal pustule of the calf, at dif- 

 ferent stages of its progress, in which the presence of 

 the special micrococcus could readily be observed. The 

 method of preparation adopted was to place the excised 

 fragments of skin in absolute alcohol, to cut sections, 

 and stain by Weigert's method (methylamine violet), 

 and then discoloring them until only the nuclei, the 

 bacteria, and micrococci remain visible. Under a high 

 power, the latter were visible as extremely minute 

 points, tinted blue, about a thousandth part of a milli- 

 meter in diameter, and grouped in colonies. They were 

 seen in the borders of the inoculation wound, and in 

 the Malpighian layer, and subsequently could be traced 

 passing into the subjacent cutis, especially in the lym- 

 phatic spaces. The multiplication and extension of the 

 organism seemed to coincide closely with the develop- 

 ment of the pustule." l 



Dr. Wolff claims to have successfully cultivated 



1 J. Roy. Microscopical Soc., Oct. 1882, p. 661. 



