ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 779 



of whose vegetation and fecundity left nothing to be desired." At 

 71° to 72° this Bacillus died. " It is curious," observed M. Miquel, 

 " to see an organism living and swarming in a liquid in which the 

 hand is scalded in a few seconds." 



The two species observed by the author passed this limit, and it 

 is possible others may yet be found capable of developing at still 

 higher temperatures. 



Bacteria in Diphtheria.* — E. E. Gregg contends that the three 

 forms of so-called bacteria in diphtheria are nothing more than the 

 three ordinary and regular stages of the fibrillation of fibrin of 

 which the diphtheritic membranes are composed, the micrococci being 

 granules of fibrin (1st stage of fibrillation), the rod-like bacteria 

 fibrils of fibrin (2nd stage), and the spiral bacteria spirals of fibrin 

 (contractive stage of its fibrils). Tiiree figures are given in illustration 

 of these stages. " Thus it will be seen that this whole question of 

 the membranes of diphtheria, the falsely assumed bacteria in connection 

 therewith, the coagula of the heart in this disease, &c., may be placed 

 at once upon a purely scientific basis if the profession so desires. 

 And by this showing, too, it will be seen that the exercise of a little 

 common sense and the proper application of a few simple facts to the 

 solution of the subject by the original promulgators and promoters of 

 the bacteria theory, would have saved the medical profession a great 

 disgrace, would have avoided hastening tens of thousands of patients 

 out of the worhi in the vain eifort to destroy by treatment what did 

 not exist, as vegetable parasites, and would have rapidly advanced 

 instead of retarded our knowledge of this terrible disease." 



Fatal Form of Septicgemia in the Rabbit, produced by the 

 Subcutaneous Injection of Human Saliva.!— Dr. G. M. Sternberg 

 gives an account of some experiments, made in the first instance as a 

 check upon those relating to the so-called Bacillus malarias of Klebs 

 and Tomassi-Crudelli, which shows that his own saliva has remark- 

 able virulent properties when injected into the subcutaneous con- 

 nective tissues of a rabbit. These results have been fully confirmed 

 by further experiments, which are of special interest now because of 

 the announcement, by Pasteur, of " a new disease," produced in 

 rabbits by the injection of the saliva of an infant which died of 

 hydrophobia. % 



The saliva, injected in doses of 1-25 c.c. to 1-75 c.c, infallibly 

 produced death, usually within forty-eight hours, while blood, 

 putrid urine, liquid fteces, and other matters were innocuous. 

 Saliva of other individuals gave varying results, while surface-mud 

 from the gutters of New Orleans in September invariably proved 

 fatal. 



The course of the disease and the post-mortem appearances 



* Bufialo 'Investigator.' See 'The Microscope,' &c., i. (1881) pp. 85-6 

 (3 figs.). 



t Sep. repr. from 'National Board of Health Bulletin,' April 30th, 1881, 

 22 pp. (1 pi.). 



X Comptes Eendus, xcii. (1881) p. 159. See this Journal, ante, p. 286. 



