264 BACTERIOLOGY 



peritoneal cavity of the animal in which they are placed. 

 Under these circumstances the specific virus was expected to 

 develop within the sacs and receive its food supply by dif- 

 fusion from the surrounding peritoneum; the body tem- 

 perature of the animal in which they were placed being most 

 favorable to incubation. 



The investigators found that by the use of a special 

 system of illumination and very high magnification, about 

 2000 diameters, there were to be detected within the col- 

 lodion sacs, in from a few days to several weeks, numerous 

 motile points or dots of such minute dimensions that it was 

 often impossible to decide as to their exact form. No such 

 bodies were seen in control collodion sacs placed similarly 

 in the peritoneum of animals but in which sacs none of the 

 tissue or juices from a diseased animal had been inclosed. 

 Nocard and Roux are disposed to regard these bodies as 

 the exciting cause of the disease under consideration. 



Flexner and Noguchi announce that by the use of Nogu- 

 chi's method for cultivating spirochetse (see Spirochetacese) 

 they have isolated from the central nervous tissues of both 

 man and monkeys dead of poliomyelitis, minute coccus-like 

 bodies that they believe to be the cause of the disease. 

 The culture medium consists of human ascetic fluid to which 

 a fragment of sterile fresh rabbit kidney has been added. 

 The cultivation is conducted at first under anaerobic condi- 

 tions but later subcultures do not demand complete absence 

 of free oxygen. When ready the tubes are inoculated with 

 small bits of the diseased cerebrum or cord after which a 

 thick layer of sterile paraffin oil is placed upon the surface 

 of the ascetic fluid. This suffices for the exclusion of free 

 oxygen. 



After from seven to twelve days at body temperature a dif- 

 fuse clouding or opalescence appears about the bit of nervous 



