ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 933 



The result of the experiments showed that the tubercle bacillus 

 is characterized by gi'eat durability of structure, as evidenced by its 

 not being destroyed by the strong acids used in the various processes 

 for its detection, and by its little tendency to decomposition. It does 

 not multiply in distilled water, but does so largely in beef solutions. 

 Arsenic, boracic acid, and perchloride of mercury do not interfere 

 with its development, but rather promote it. Quinine and iodine 

 (especially the former) appear to entirely arrest its growth and 

 destroy its power of multiplication. 



Chemical Properties of Bacillus subtilis.* — G. Vandevelde finds 

 that B. subtilis is an organism which can live in the ferment-stage for 

 a long time. He was induced to investigate the subject by the con- 

 tradictory statements that had been made ; to obtain the organism he 

 adopted the method of Eoberts and Buchner, which consists in im- 

 mersing hay in as small a quantity of water as possible, and main- 

 taining it for about four hours at a temperature of 36° ; the liquid 

 having been poured oflf and brought to a density of 1004, is placed in 

 vessels of which it fills only half; these, after having been firmly 

 closed, are subjected to heat sufficient to boil the water ; the water is 

 then kept for an hour at a temperature of 36°, and after thirty hours 

 there is a rich supply of B. subtilis. The organism multiplies rapidly 

 in a suitable cultivation-fluid, and the author thinks that it does so at 

 the expense of the dissolved oxygen ; when this is used up the 

 microbes make their way to the surface, where they live and multiply 

 by absorbing oxygen. Experiments made with various chemical re- 

 agents proved that the microbe was able for long to play the part of 

 a ferment ; if the experiments of Buchner should be confirmed, the 

 transformation of Bacillus anthracis into B. subtilis is the transforma- 

 tion of an organism that can only live for a short time without free 

 oxygen into another which can for a long time produce the heat 

 necessary for its life while decomposing fermentescible substances. 

 B. subtilis, after it has transformed carbohydrates into lactic acid, 

 has a strong tendency to form butyric acid at the expense of the 

 lactic. 



Vandevelde has been able to detect nuclein in B. subtilis, but he 

 has not yet found any traces of cellulose. 



Supposed identity of Hay-bacteria and those of Cattle-dis- 

 temper.f — A. Prazmowski contests the view of Buchner J that these 

 two bacilli are different forms of development of the same organism. 

 By careful culture he claims to have observed important points of 

 difference in their structure and development. 



In the hay-Vjacterium, B. subtilis Cohn, the rods, whether isolated 

 or united into chains, grow into long segmented or unsegmented 

 pseudo-filaments, which form a pellicle on the fluid, and in which the 

 spores are formed, each segment of the pseudo-filament elongating, 

 and forming within it an elongated strongly refractive spore. These 



• Arch. Biol., v. (1884) pp. 127-51. 



t Biol. Contralbl., iv. (1884) pp. 393-40G. 



X Sf this Journal, iii. (1883) p. 832. 



