ZODLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 1051 



vibrios may pass into the blood after infection into the intestine, and 

 may be excreted in the urine. 



M. A. G. Pouchet reports * that from the bouillon used in the 

 culture of the choh ra-bacillus he has extracted an alkaloid which has 

 all the external characters (smell, chemical instability, toxic effect on 

 animals) of a substance found in choleraic dejections. 



Morphology of the Comma Bacillus.t — Herr J. Ferran records 

 some remarkable observations on the mov})hology of Sjnr ilium CJiolerse 

 asiaticcC. When cultivated in a particular way there are formed, he 

 states, within the spirillum-like iilaments one or more globular bodies, 

 composed of undilferentiated protoi)lasm of the same refractive power 

 as the rest of the plant. They surround themselves with a periplasm 

 or hyaline envelope, within which the protoplasm contracts, the 

 largest attaining the size of 6-12 /x. These bodies the author regards 

 as antheridia. He has also observed true spores proceeding fmm the 

 filiform or curved thallus. Under special conditions of culture they 

 grow to a considerable size, 6-12 /x in diameter, and when they haA^e 

 attained the size of a blood-corpuscle, they assume a spiny character ; 

 and in this condition, described as tl e "mulberry-condition," the author 

 regards them as ova or oospheres. At a certain period they put out 

 a long slender thread of protoplasm, about 0*25-0 "5 fx in thickness, 

 and extremely transparent. The end of this filament rapidly assumes 

 a spiral character, and then reproduces itself by division, then going 

 through the same cycle again. Actual conjugation or sexual union is 

 not stated to have been observed; but in consequence of these phe- 

 nomena, Herr Ferran removes the cholera-fungus from the Schizomy- 

 cotes, and places it among the Peronosporeae, with the name Perono- 

 spora Barcinonee. 



Attenuation of the Choleraic Virus. $ — MM. W. Nicati and 

 Eietsch find that cultivations, which, being inoculated last October into 

 the digestive tract of guinea-pigs, produced diarrhoea and death, did 

 not in the succeeding May produce either diarrhoea or death. Similar 

 facts recorded by other obseivers tend to the belief that the choleraic 

 virus is attenuated by cultivation in nutrient gelatin at a temperature 

 of from 20^-25^ C. Large quantities of the poison, even when quite 

 fresh, may be subcutaueously injected into small animals, and 

 especially guinea-pigs, without producing any ill effects. 



Passage of Pathogenic Microbes from the Mother to the Foetus. 

 — M. Kouljassoff has put to himself the following questions § : — 



1. What is the influence of the time which elapses between tho 

 inocidation of the gravid female and its death on the passage of tho 

 microbes of anthrax fi'om the mother to the foetus ? He finds that 

 the longer tlie time, the larger the numljcr of micrcjbcs in tho foetus. 



2. Is there any difference between the passage of tlie bacilli of 

 the vaccine of anthrax and those of the virulent cultuie? There arc 

 fewer microbes when the mother is inoculateil with the attenuated 



♦ Comptcs RcikIuh, ci. (\mr>) pp. .510-1. 



t Zcitschr. f. Klin. Medicin, ix. (1885). 8oo liiol. Ceiifrall))., v. (1885) p. 323. 



j Couples Reudus, ci. (1885) pp. 18G-7. § Ibid., [ip. 101-4. 



