ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 1035 



exhalations, and dissolved in distilled water. A drop of this water 

 placed on sterilized gelatin developed the next day great quantities of 

 a minute globular microbe, about I /x in diameter, which swarmed 

 rapidly in the water, and displayed the closest resemblance to 

 Bacterium Fitzianum Zopf, which converts glycerin into ethyl-alco- 

 hol. It is always accompanied by a number of other forms, especially 

 B. subtile. 



Organisms of Sulphuretted Waters.* — M. L. Olivier has 

 examined the vegetable organisms in a number of sulphuretted springs 

 in different parts of France, and finds bacteria present in all of them 

 without exception, having the power of retaining their vitality up to 

 at least as high a temperature as 50° C. In cold springs these organ- 

 isms are of the nature of leptothrix, the filaments of which contain 

 granulations of sulphur reduced out of the water. In the hot springs 

 the organisms might rather be described as bacilli of extreme 

 tenuity, varying on the one hand to the form of micrococcus, on the 

 other hand to bacterium ; they are all immotile. These also serve as 

 accumulators of sulphur, which is found in the glarous mass in a 

 crystalline state, and is contained also in their protoplasm. 



Microsporon furfur, the pathogenic Microbe of Tuberculosis.f — 

 MM. Duguet and J. Hericourt find this microbe to be a universal 

 accompaniment of tuberculosis, whether the ordinary bacilli are 

 present or not, and its injection into rabbits invariably caused this 

 disease. The bacillus of tuberculosis is regarded by the authors as a 

 micro-organic form, corresponding to one of the phases in the evolu- 

 tion of Microsporon furfur. 



Some cases of acute tuberculosis examined by these investigators 

 presented no bacilli or zooglcea forms; but when the tissues were 

 treated with potash (10 to 40 per cent.), a delicate mycelium allied to 

 that of Microsporon was discovered ; and on pushing the inquiry 

 further it was found that this mycelium was more frequently present 

 than the bacilli, being seen not only in the tubercles, but also in the 

 neighbouring healthy tissue. Similar mycelial threads can also be 

 found in the expectoration mixed with the bacilli. The cultures of 

 Microsporon furfur from tubercle produced from the fungus, and those 

 from tubercles of man are precisely the same in character. Cultiva- 

 tions can be made in slightly alkalized bouillon or in milk, when it 

 becomes possible to distinguish an aerobic and an anaerobic element. 

 The former floats at the surface, and at a temperature of from 

 86-100° Fahr. forms a thick membrane composed of bacilli. The 

 latter is found at the bottom of the cultivation-tube as a mass of 

 granulations and mycelium. MM. Duguet and Hericourt believe 

 they can obtain an attenuated virus. 



Typhus-bacillus.J — Dr. A. Pfeiffer has isolated the bacillus found 

 in the stools of typhus-patients by cultivation in agar-agar-flesh- 

 peptone jelly, in which they made their appearance on the second or 



* Comptes Rendus, cii. (1886) pp. 556-9. f Ibid., pp. 943-6. 



X Dcutsch. Med. Woclienschr., No. 29, 18S5. See Bot. Centralbl., xxvii 

 (1886) p. 15. 



