1882.] 



MICKOSCOPICAL JOUKNAL. 



57 



crococci was always proportionate 

 to the intensity and stage of the dis- 

 ease. Rod-bacteria, which have been 

 described by other authors as associ- 

 ated with this disease, probably do 

 not appear until the membrane begins 

 to putrify. 



The larger micrococci range in 

 size from fsV^ to nV^ of an inch in 

 diameter. In culture experiments, 

 the smaller ones, which infest the leu- 

 cocytes, after a period of active move- 

 ment, soon become still, and the cor- 

 puscles burst, allowing the enclosed 

 contents to escape as a zoogloea-mass 

 of micrococci, each of which mea- 

 sures about -sjshni of an inch. After 

 twenty-four hours the individual mi- 

 crococci are set free. These soon 

 begin to multiply by division, which 

 may be continued for five genera- 

 tions, but after that the multiplication 

 is much less rapid. A temperature 

 of 37° to 40° C, is most favorable for 

 their multiplication, but at 70° C, 

 they do not lose their vitality. 



Some inoculation experiments with 

 rabbits, material from the mild form 

 of the disease being used, frequently 

 led to a secondary form of tubercu- 

 losis, but very rarely to a form of 

 diphtheria. When the poison from 

 the more malignant type was used, 

 however, the results were quite differ-, 

 ent, although not conclusive in prov- 

 ing that the disease thus engendered 

 in rabbits is true diphtheria. 



As a result of many experiments, 

 it was concluded: "That both septic 

 animal matter and non-organic irri- 

 tants placed in the trachea cause 

 pseudo-membranous trachitis which 

 we have failed to distinguish from 

 diphtheritic trachitis, the membrane 

 in both cases containing micrococci. 



We cannot do full justice to this 

 valuable report in the short space at 

 our disposal, but we have endeavored 

 to give a fair outline of the work re- 

 corded, so that those who are interest- 

 ed in the subject may form some idea 

 of the results attained. There is much 

 that still remains to be done before 

 the subject is fully elucidated, and 



we trust the National Board of Health 

 will encourage the prosecution of the 

 work. 



Tuberculosis. — M. Toussaint re- 

 cently made some remarks upon 

 tuberculosis, at the French Academy 

 of Sciences, which are of interest in 

 connection with the preceding article. 

 While admitting that lesions can be 

 produced at will resembling tuber- 

 culosis, by inoculation with inert sub- 

 stances, M. Toussaint asserts that the 

 disease thus engendered is not a true 

 tuberculosis, and the seemingly tuber- 

 culous matter obtained from it does 

 not reproduce the disease by inocu- 

 lation. The histological appearances 

 supposed to be characteristic of this 

 disease are, therefore, fallacious. 



True tuberculous matter can re- 

 produce itself indefinitely, and the 

 more often it is inoculated the more 

 virulent it becomes. 



Bulletin of the Museum of 

 Comparative Zoology. — This pub- 

 lication, from Harvard College, de- 

 serves to be ranked as one of the most 

 valuable scientific publications of the 

 country. The importance to the zoo- 

 logist of the articles that have been 

 published during the last two years 

 or more, relating to the dredgings un- 

 der the direction of Prof. Alexander 

 Agassiz, cannot be overestimated. 

 That we have not mentioned the re- 

 sults more frequently in these col- 

 umns, is owing to the nature of the 

 contributions which are only valuable 

 in their complete form as published — 

 not from any want of appreciation of 

 their value on our part. 



We have before us a volume of 625 

 pages and five large lithographic 

 plates, entirely taken up with a con- 

 tribution from E. L. Mark, on the "Ma- 

 turation, Fecundation and Segmenta- 

 tion of Limax Campestris." We be- 

 gan to read this with the intention of 

 giving a synopsis of the work, but it 

 was too great a task. The mono- 

 graph is one of the greatest interest, 

 and it is so clearly written that we 



