ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 1053 



bacillus: — (1) A delicate bacillus, 3 fx long by 0'75 /x broad, tbe 

 cells sometimes united, into short threads, but usually single and. 

 motile. (2) Thicker bacilli, 4 /a by 1 * 5 />(,, growing into gelatinous 

 colonies and. without motility. (3) A very delicate bacillus, 2 /a 

 long and 0*25 fx. broad, which takes only a slight stain with anilin 

 dyes. In addition to these there were invariably found micrococci 

 from • 5 to 1 /u, in diameter ; and the author regards it as probable, 

 though not yet demonstrable, that these micrococci are the cause of 

 malaria. 



Gummosis of Fig's.* — Sig. C. Comes attributes an epidemic dis- 

 ease of the fig-tree, which consists in the suppression and death of the 

 young shoots and the final drying up of the older branches, to a 

 " gummosis " or transformation of starch and of the young tissues 

 through the action of a specifically distinct organism which he calls 

 Bacterium gummis. Sig. Comes identifies this organism with that 

 which causes gummosis in the Amygdalese and Aurantiaceje, and the 

 " mal nero " of the vine, and even with the " Cornalia's corpuscles " 

 in the blood of silkworms. 



Bacillus of the Vine.f — M. L. A. Corvo contends that the destruc- 

 tion of vines ascribed to the Phylloxera is really due to a tubercular 

 disease occasioned by a special bacillus. This disease can be com- 

 municated to other plants by inoculation in the entire absence of the 

 Phylloxera. The insect merely spreads the evil of inoculation. 



Pear Blight.| — In proof that bacteria are the direct cause of the 

 disease known as pear blight, Mr. J. C. Arthur shows by the results 

 of his experiments that, (1) sap from an infected tree when inoculated 

 into a healthy tree invariably produced the blight. (2) When 

 cultures to the sixth generation of organisms were made with all pre- 

 caution to prevent error, and healthy trees wore inoculated with the 

 pure culture of this sixth generation, the tree is stricken with blight, 

 starting from the point of iuoculation, and gradually extending over 

 the whole plant. (3) That wherever there is a blight not produced 

 by freezing, bacteria of this species are invariably present. The 

 crucial experiment was made by filtering a watery solution containin'^ 

 the bacteria, and then inoculating with the bacteria on the one hand 

 and the filtration on the other, resulting in blight in the former and 

 none at all in the latter case. 



Action of Ozonized Air upon Micro-organisms and Albumen in 

 Solution. § — Mr. J. J. Coleman describes a number of experiments 

 conducted by him in conjunction with Prof. M'Kendrick, boinf^ 

 supplementary to their joint investigation upon the influence of cold 

 on microphytes.! 



Air artificially impregnated with ozone by means of a Euhmkorff 



♦ Alti E. Ist. d'lncoraggiamento di Napoli, iii. (1884). See Bot. Centialbl 

 xxii. (188.5) p. 270. 



t Coinptt'8 Ilendus, ci. (1885) pp. 528-30. 



J bf)t. Gazette, X. (1885) pp. 343-5. 



§ Nature, xxxii. (1885) pp. .Wl-2. (Paper read before Diitihh AiSHocialion.) 



II See tliia Journal, ante, p. Ol'J. 



