104 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



and finds very important points of difference between them. In A. 

 caldariorum the rods or cocci have a distinct bluish or verdigris colour ; 

 the gelatinons envelopes of the separate cells have a circular or oval 

 form ; and not more than from two to four rods or cocci are inclosed in 

 the same envelope. In Bacillus rnuralis, on the other hand, the cells are 

 colourless ; the number of rods inclosed in the same envelope is con- 

 siderably greater, up to eight ; and of the spore-like micrococci a very 

 large number go to make up the secondary micro-zooglcea, the envelope 

 being usually considerably longer in one direction ; and the rods and 

 cocci have a tendency, like those of Nostoc, to arrange themselves in 

 rows. 



8. Scliizomycetes. 



Bacterinm Balbiardi, a chromog-enous marine Bacterium.*— M. A. 

 Billet describes a new micro-organism. Bacterium Balbianii, which 

 makes its appearance in macerations of marine alg£e after a period of 

 several weeks, either on the surface of the liquid or on the sides of the 

 cultivation vessels. In colour it varies between a pale and an orange 

 yellow. In its zoogloea condition it appears as a number of spheroidal 

 bodies inclosed in a thin gelatinous capsule. Within the capsule are 

 thin straight rodlets,' 1 to 2 /x long, usually in pairs. The capsule 

 rapidly increases in size, and by agglomeration a mass is formed with a 

 bran-like appearance. Pure cultivations were made in solid and liquid 

 media. The former was 1 • 5 per cent, agar-agar ; the latter an infusion 

 of Laminaria made by boiling these algee in sea-water for an hour, and 

 after filtration sterilizing at 120^. The density of the liquid is 1 • 029. By 

 growing the bacterium in the foregoing media, the author found that 

 this bacterium passed through certain stages of development, or an 

 evolution cycle, which comprised four distinct states. The stages were 

 the filamentous, i. e. numerous motionless elements joined end to 

 end; when the filaments got matted together a felt-like pad was pro- 

 duced. This constituted the second stage. The third stage, or that of 

 dissociation, was distinguished by the mobility of the elements, which 

 were either isolated or formed chains of not more than two or three 

 individuals. The fourth stage was the zoogloea condition, already 

 described. 



Ferment from putrefactive Bacteria.j — Herr E. Salkowski placed 

 fibrin which had been well washed and exposed for a few days to a 

 temperature of 7°-10° C. for many months under chloroform-water 

 (5 ccm. chloroform to a litre of water), by which putrefaction was 

 entirely prevented. The fibrin, however, dissolved slowly ; the proteids 

 in solution were at first globulin and albumin, later albumoses, and 

 finally peptones. The cause of these changes must certainly have been 

 an unorganized ferment, since bacteria were excluded during the experi- 

 ment. The author determined that this ferment must have been derived 

 from the bacteria which contaminated the fibrin after the process of 

 washing. Such a ferment was discovered in the undissolved residue; it 

 was active in an alkaline solution, and was therefore of the nature of a 

 trypsin. 



* Comptes Eendus, cvii. (1888) pp. 423-5. 



t Zeit. Biol., xxv. (188SJ pp. 92-101. &iee Journ. Chem. Soc, 1888 (Abstr.), 

 p. 1326. 



