832 SUMMAET OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING: TO 



have brought it. He considers that it can be clearly established that 

 these bacilli can produce spores and go through all stages of develop- 

 ment without coming into contact with any animal substance ; pro- 

 pagating themselves extensively on vegetable substrata in moist 

 situations during the warm months ; the spores retaining their 

 power of vitality through the winter. 



Experimental Production of the Bacteria of Distemper .*— H. 



Buchner has experimented on the methods by which the infectious 

 fundus of distemper can be artifically transformed into the harmless 

 hay-bacterium. Of the latter he considers the correct name to be 

 Bacterium subtile. The transformation is effected by means of a con- 

 trivance which is described in detail, by subjecting the infectious 

 fungus to the influence of abundant supply of food-material and 

 abundant oxygen. From the true distemper-bacteria, with clear 

 nutrient fluid and delicate white clouds at the bottom, three transi- 

 tion-stages are thus obtained, viz. — 



1. Nutrient fluid clear or clouded with flecks ; a white rim 

 formed where the surface of the fluid touches the glass ; white flecks 

 at the bottom of the fluid. 



2. Fluid clouded with flecks ; very loose pellicle with a mucila- 

 ginous appearance, which sinks to the bottom with the least shaking ; 

 bottom covered with flecks and fragments of the pellicle. 



3. Fluid clear or clouded with flecks ; pellicle consistent, but 

 with a mucilaginous appearance ; no flecks at the bottom. 



These lead to the true hay-bacteria ; when these only are present, 

 the nutrient fluid is completely clear, and there is a dry, firm, white 

 pellicle often finely wrinkled, with a pulverulent appearance, and 

 easily submerged. 



Germs of Malaria.f — In continuation of the researches of Tommasi- 

 Crudeli and Klebs,t A. Ceci has further investigated the conditions 

 under which malarial germs germinate in the soil. He concludes 

 that in the atmospheric air and in the soil there are usually only 

 germs or spores, which can develope under certain favourable condi- 

 tions into more highly organized forms. This development almost 

 invariably causes, in the fluids and moist substances in which it takes 

 place, certain chemical changes, which are collectively known as 

 fermentation. When the development takes place in nitrogenous or 

 albuminoid substances, the highest kind of fermentation or putrefac- 

 tion ensues. The effect of heat upon the germs is to retard their 

 development, and consequently the fermentation or putrefaction. 

 The fermentation produced by the germs in animal organisms, or fever, 

 is retarded by the same agencies. The development of the germs 

 may take place without causing fermentation, and is then apparently 

 harmless. 



The succession of generations of the organisms which occurs 



* SB. K. Bayer. Akad. Wise. Miinchen, 1S82, pp. 147-69. See Bot. Centralbl., 

 xi. (1882) p. 239. Cf. this Journal, ante, p. 89. 



J Arch. f. experim. Path. u. Pbarmak., xv. p. 153, and xvi. p. 1. See Natur- 

 orscher, xv. (1882) p. 332. 



J See this Journal, i. (1881) p. 287. 



