302 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



Cluster form. A cluster of a number of spheres. 



Dotible-rod form. Composed of two short rods. When composed 



of more than two : — Filament-of-rods form. 

 TetraJiedral or Cubical form. Spheres or short rods united in 



fours in one or two layers. 



Microbe of Rabies.* — Prof. H. Fol gives an account of a microbe, 

 the presence of which appears to be associated with hydrophobia. 

 The preparations were made by hardening the spinal cord or brain by 

 immersion, directly after death, in a solution of 2 • 5 grms. bichromate 

 of potash, and 1 gramme of sulphate of copper in 100 parts of water ; 

 the piece of tissue is divided so as to be able to take up Weigert's 

 solution of htematosylin, then placed in absolute alcohol, imbedded 

 in paraffin, and cut into sections not more than 1/200 mm. in thick- 

 ness. In these preparations, when carefully decolorized, we see 

 groups of small globules, not unlike micrococci. If a cultivation be 

 made of part of the brain there is a deposit which, on inoculation 

 into healthy animals, produces all the features of rabies. If, however, 

 the cultivation be more than six days old, there are no marked toxic 

 effects. M. Pasteur had already recognized the presence of certain 

 granulations in the spinal cord of rabid animals, but they were not 

 sufficiently fully described to enable M. Fol to say whether or no 

 they are the same as the microbes which he has been able to detect ; 

 nothing can be distinctly made out by merely reducing the nervous 

 tissue to a pulp, and examining it microscopically as recommended by 

 M. Gibier. 



Microbes of Calf-lymph.t — Fermenting forms of Saccharomyces 

 have been found only exceptionally in vaccine taken directly from the 

 arm of children, in capillary tubes with glycerin-lymph, and in the 

 lymj)h of children dried in the air ; but are found abundantly in calf- 

 lymph cultivated on Koch's gelatin-plates, and on malt-extract gelatin- 

 plates. Herr L. Pfeiffer describes these forms in detail. They 

 consist of elongated or spherical budding cells 1*5 /a by 4 /a, 

 varying in form according to the nutrient fluid. The author regards 

 them as probably derivatives of higher fungi such as Ustilagineae, 

 which have reached the cattle through the fodder. Pfeiffer thus 

 describes the hypothetical Saccharomyces vaccinse : — Small, roundish, 

 or ellipsoidal cells, single or united into chains, of 1 • 5-4 • 6 jx diameter, 

 usually with a vacuole in the centre, and a shining lateral nucleus. 

 The gemmation is evident on a fresh nutrient substratum, with no 

 formation of mycelium nor of internal spores. In beer-wort they 

 cause no or very little alcoholic fermentation. 



Action of Sunlight on Micro-organisms, &c4 — Dr. A. Downes 

 has previously shown that sunlight is fatal to microsaprophytes by a 

 process of hyper-oxidation thereby induced. In this process the more 



* Comptes Kendus, ci. (1885) pp. 1276-9. Arch. Sci. Phys. et Nat., xiv. 

 (1885) pp. 549-53. 



t Pfeiffer, L., ' Ueber Sprosspilze der Kalber-lymplie,' "Weimar, 1885. See 

 Bot. Centralbl., xxiv. (1885) p. 176. 



X Proc. Roy. Soc, xl. (1886). 



