118 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



started by rubbing the potato on the floor, sink, &c., and then separating 

 from the mass of zoogloese the ones he wished to study. Methyl- 

 violet was found to be the best staining agent, and Dr. Trelease 

 contradicts Easmussen's assertion that preparations with this reagent 

 undergo alteration. 



The new forms described are the following : — a Micrococcus which 

 formed spots of magenta colour, which is doubtfully identified with 

 M. prodigiosus, but it never gives the characteristic blood-red colour 

 of this latter species. 



Bacterium candidum (Trel.) grows best on wet potato. The 

 zoogloea, at first moist, dries later on and looks powdery, becoming 

 wrinkled, till ultimately it assumes a yellow colour. The constituent 

 cells are ellipsoidal, and usually in chains up to six ; when in water 

 the cells move about, but no flagellum could be distinguished. When 

 sown on beetroot the zoogloea was red, but a new culture on potato 

 showed the characteristic white colour. B. aurantiacum (Trel.) forms 

 at first a pale yellow semi-fluid zoogloea, which later on becomes 

 waxy and orange-coloured. Cells smaller than preceding, and show 

 central spores. (In each case he refers to similar forms previously 

 described.) B. luteum (Trel.) is at first nearly fluid and colourless, 

 it soon becomes waxy, and as it dries, becomes wrinkled and of a 

 lemon-yellow colour. After two or three days it dries up and becomes 

 a brownish-maroon. The cells are short ellipsoids, or rod-like, and 

 spores were noticed. B. chlorinum (Trel.) has a greenish-yellow 

 zoogloea, and on drying shows no wrinkling. B. incarnatum (Trel.) 

 is somewhat like the preceding, but varies in colour from a " dirty 

 flesh-colour " to deep red brown ; cells ellipsoidal, or more elongated 

 unsegmented rods. 



He also describes Micrococcus candidus (Cohn), B. tumescens (Zopf), 

 B. violaceum (Bergonzini), B. hyalinum (Ktz.), Cladothrioa dichotoma 

 (Cohn), and Leptothrix huccalis (Robin), with a new SaccJiaromyces, 

 S. glutinis (Cohn) var. candidus (Trel.) which resembles Cohn's 

 claret-coloured form, except that its colour is white ; it pullulates as 

 yeast does, but never forms strings of more than three cells. 



Bacilli of Syphilis.* — Prof. Doutrelepont and Dr. J. Schiitz have 

 succeeded in detecting by staining the bacilli of syphilis by a com- 

 plicated and tedious process. They are nearly straight or slightly 

 curved or coiled or bent long rods. Here and there are light- 

 coloured spots, possibly spores, rarely swellings at the extremities. 

 They are formed singly, or in pairs like crossed swords, or in large 

 irregular groups. They are usually found in pale inflated cells, 

 often without any discernible cell-boundary. They are not usually 

 numerous ; only fresh products of syphilis yielded them in large 

 quantities. Cultivation has at present been without result. 



Oxidation and Reduction under the Influence of Microscopic 

 Organisms in the SoiLj— M. A. Miintz has already shown that in 



* Deutsch. Med. Wochensclir., 1885, p. 320. Sec Bot. Centralbl., xxiii. 

 (1885) p. 145. 



t Comptts Reiidus, ci. (1885) pp 248-50. 



