ZOOLOaY AND BOTANY, MIOKOSCOPY, ETC. 929 



Micrococci of Pneumonia.* — F. Strassmann lias a brief commu- 

 nication on his experiments with the sputa of pneumonia patients, 

 which started with the view that, if the fungi are, as Friedlancler has 

 shown, most richly and regularly found in the bronchial exudation of 

 the dead body, they ought also to be found in that which is expecto- 

 rated during life. The author found that his expectation was 

 fulfilled. In the examination of a number of non-pneumonic sputa 

 diplococci were found, which apparently came from the buccal cavity ; 

 these are only with difficulty to be distinguished from the micrococci 

 of pneumonia. As the cocci of pneumonia are to be found twenty- 

 four or thirty-six hours after the crisis, the author thinks that they 

 do not suddenly disappear, like the spirilla of recurrent fever. 



Micro-organism of Zoogloeic Tuberculosis-t — L. Malassez and 

 W. Vignal have now succeeded in satisfactorily staining zooglceee, 

 and they find that those that are best stained are small isolated 

 zoogloeae ; others can only be partly coloured, the staining affecting 

 only their periphery ; others, again, cannot be stained at all. The 

 authors think that tlie parts susceptible of colouring are those which 

 have been most recently developed, and which are in the best condition 

 of nutrition. 



Stained specimens were seen to consist of a mass of small elon- 

 gated grains, • 6 to 1 ^ long and • 3 /a wide ; they are disposed in 

 linear rows, which are looped, and cross one another ; the grains are 

 micrococci. Differences in coloration were seen to be associated 

 with notable differences in structui'e. In the periphery of zooglceic 

 tuberculosis one may see (1) very small zoogloeae, which only differ 

 from those just described by their smaller size, and by forming masses 

 less dense, and of less regular contour ; (2) long undulating bands, 

 which are often curved ; (3) very short rectilinear groups, which are 

 either isolated or united into small masses ; (4) diplococci and 

 micrococci, either isolated or in groups. 



The similarity in structure and the existence of intermediate 

 foiTus proves that all the various kinds belong to the same micro- 

 organism as the large zooglceae ; and this view is confirmed by a 

 study of their development. The series starts with the micrococci 

 and diplococci. Loss of colourability, dissociation of the mass, the 

 conversion of the elongated into spherical micrococci, and the 

 increase in the amount of the interstitial substance, are sigus that the 

 parasite is dead, or has passed into a condition of latent activity. 



The fact that granulations in which, till the use of their new 

 methods, no zoogloeae could be distinguished, can now be seen to 

 contain micrococci, and that sometimes small masses or long chains 

 do not become stained, seem to the authors to show that the zoogloeic 

 organism need not always pass through the whole of its devoloi)mcnt 

 before passing into the latent stage, and leads, too, to the suggestion 

 that there may bo lesions in which all these small forms would 

 remain uncoloured, in which case they would doubtless escape 

 detection, and the nature of the tuberculosis would be misunderstood. 



• HB. Jcniiiscb. Gcstll. f. Xatnnviss., IHS.^ (1884) jip. 

 t ComritfH KtiiduH, xcix. (1881) iij.. 20:j-5. 



10-17. 



