ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 541 



Morphology and Genetic Relationship of Pathogenous Bacteria.* 

 — Dr. T. Haberkorn thus sums up the results of a series of observa- 

 tions on tbis subject : — (1) The four tribes of Cohn, spherobacteria, 

 microbacteria, desmobacteria, and spirobacteria, cannot be maintained ; 

 these being all forms of a single genus with numerous species. 

 (2) The history of development of the bacteria of malaria, typhus, 

 and acute contagium is essentially the same, including pleomorphy 

 and a definite alternation of generations. (3) Each of tbese diseases 

 is accompanied by a distinct species of bacterium ; typboid baving 

 also one of its own. (4) The various species of bacteria are dis- 

 tinguished by their conditions of existence, size, colour, habit, 

 movements, and metastasis. 



Pathogenous Bacteria.! — Y. Babes has convinced himself that 

 there are no bacteria in the blood or the tissues of healthy men ; this 

 judgment is based on the personal examination of more than one 

 hundred bodies. He once observed the growth of filaments of 

 Bacillus anthracis from spores in the sexual organs of a woman. 

 Bacterian colonies, and not rods only, were observed in a case of 

 Anthrax intestinal is ; other examples of similar phenomena were 

 observed, and weaken the generally accepted doctrine that rods alone 

 are found in the living body. The author has for a long time used 

 aniline green and aniline violet as colouring agents. 



Bacterium of Charhon.J — The temperature which seems most 

 favourable to the bacterium of charbon, is tbat of mammalia (37° C). 

 Birds, having a higher temperature (about 42°), do not take the disease 

 under ordinary conditions. Pasteur, however, has developed it in 

 fowls by lowering the temperature (keeping the feet in cold water). 



M. Gibier has now experimented with frogs, and finds that they- 

 do not suffer after inoculation in the normal state ; but if kept, after 

 being inoculated, in water at about 37°, they may take the disease 

 (five out of twenty did — most of the others died soon after immersion). 

 The bacteria developed were remarkable for their great length, and 

 this is attributed to the slowness of the circulation. 



Connection of Bacteria with Ferments.§ — J. Eossbach finds that 

 the death which ensues in one to two hours after the injection of 

 papayotin into the rabbit is accompanied by the appearance of large 

 quantities of bacteria in the blood. These were ascertained to be 

 entirely absent before the injection ; but introduction of as small 

 quantities as • 05 to • 1 gramme of this substance resulted, after 

 death, in the presence of a large number of moving globular and 

 ■ hour-glass-shaped " bacteria in every drop of blood taken from the 

 heart. Thus it appears that the presence of a small quantity of an 

 unorganized and purely chemical substance is sufficient to produce in 

 the body conditions which induce the rapid multiplication of micro- 

 phytes already existing there in insignificant quantities. This 



* Bot. Centralbl., x. (1882) pp. 100-6. 



t Biol. Centralbl., ii. (1882) pp. 97-101. 



j Compte3 Rendus, xciv. (1882). 



§ Medic. Centralbl., xx. (1882) p. 81. Cf. Naturforscher, xv. (1882) p. 224. 



