286 SUMMAEY OF CURKENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



scar. The temperature rises by from h° to 1° by the fifteenth day. 

 It remains to be seen whether inoculation from artificial growths, 

 such as now described, is able to produce immunity from this com- 

 plaint. 



Influence of Concussion on the Growth of Bacteria.* — J. Eeinke 

 has carried out a carefully devised series of experiments, for the 

 purpose of confirming (or otherwise) the old statement that bacteria 

 will not develop at all in a fluid which is in constant active motion. 

 The result was that, while the development was greatly hindered, it 

 was not found to be actually prevented. The author suggests the 

 possibility of a connection between the hindering effect of concussion 

 on the development of bacteria, and the well-known but inexplicable 

 hindering effect of light on vegetable growth. 



Long Life of Anthrax Germs : their Preservation in Cultivated 

 Soils.f — Further experiments relating to the conditions under which 

 anthrax germs occur in soil have been undertaken by Messrs. Pasteur, 

 Chamberland, and Eoux. Soil from two burying-grounds — one in use 

 for the last three years, the other not used since twelve years pre- 

 viously — proved to be infectious, and imparted anthrax to fowls 

 inoculated from it. Of seven sheep which were confined for some 

 hours at midday during several fine days over the older burying- 

 ground, not being allowed to feed there, one died of anthrax on the 

 sixteenth day, and a second on the thirty-first day after the com- 

 mencement of the experiment ; none of the remaining five sheep, or 

 of the rest of the flock, died during this period. The seven sheep 

 had never had the disease previously ; they must have obtained the 

 germs when sniffing over the ground, according to the habit of 

 sheep. 



Vegetables had been grown on the ^same ground, and one case (not 

 fatal) of malignant pustule had appeared among the human beings 

 inhabiting the farm in question. Thus cultivation of plants, with 

 their assimilating and combustive powers, is not sufficient to destroy 

 all the organic matters of manure and night-soil, for these germs 

 survive it, and very slight alterations in the mode of life of the 

 animals inhabiting such a place might entail an outbreak among them 

 which might be communicated to man by the bites of flies, &c. 



New Disease due to the Action of the Saliva of a Child who 

 died from Hydrophobia.:|: — M. Pasteur (aided by MM. Chamberland 

 and Eoux) describes the results of the inoculation of certain animals 

 with the saliva of a hydrophobic child. Pour hours after death, 

 a little of the mucus of the mouth was dissolved in water, and imme- 

 diately two rabbits were inoculated with it. These died after 

 thirty-six hours. Fresh rabbits were then inoculated, either with the 

 saliva or with the blood of the first rabbits ; these died more rapidly. 



* Pfliiger' s Arch. f. Physiol., xxiii. p. 434. See Naturforscher, xiv. (1881) 

 p. 56. 



t Comptes Eendus, xcii. (1881) pp. 209-11. 

 t Ibid., xciv. (1881) pp. 159-61. 



