too 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XVII. No. 420 



HEALTH MATTERS. 



An Industrial Use of Microbes. 



Dr. Neilson of Norway says that the Norwegian fisher-folk 

 tave for more than five hundred years used pathogenic bacteria 

 in catching whales. A few miles from the town of Bergen there 

 is a narrow inlet of the sea, into the mouth of which whales make 

 their way every season. As related in the Sanitary Inspector, 

 ■when a whale is discovered in this place, the alarm is given, and 

 the fishermen put out in their boats, drive the whale farther up 

 the narrow bay, and stretch a net across the mouth of the inlet. 

 Through this the monster could easily break, but he does not. 

 Then they proceed to capture him and bring him to land. The 

 animal, however, is twenty or thirty feet long and very strong, 

 and with their primitive implements alone this cannot be done. 

 They therefore inoculate the whale with the poison of an infec- 

 tious disease, and only after he is weakened as the result of the 

 disease do they try to kill him. After the whale has been en- 

 closed, the bowmen put out, and, when he comes to the surface to 

 breathe, they shoot infected arrows into him and withdraw. 

 After twenty-four or thirty-six hours the whale becomes less 

 lively in his movements, and comes to the surface often to breathe. 

 Then the real battle begins, and, after driving ten or twelve bar- 

 ipoons into the whale, the fishermen are able to land him. An 

 ■examination of the places where the arrows were shot into the 

 whale shows, in the immediate vicinity of some of them, a hem- 

 orrhagic infiltration of the muscular tissue, resembling very 

 much the disease of land-animals called " sjmpathetic anthrax."' 

 The internal organs are normal. Once only Dr. Neilson found a 

 bacillus in the blood-vessels of the spleen. Around the poisoned 

 ■wounds vast numbers of a bacillus are found closely resembling 

 that of sympathetic anthrax. When the arrows are pulled out of 

 the wounds, many of these bacilli cling to them, and thus render 

 them effective as "death-arrows " when further used. And thus 

 the catching of whales goes on year after year, and has gone on 

 for five hundred years. Dr. Neilson inclines to the opinion that 

 the infection is the same as that of sympathetic anthrax, and 

 hopes that later investigations may clear up the point. 



Cocoanut-Water as a Culture-Fluid. 



Dr. George M. Sternberg, writing in the Medical News of Sept. 

 13, 1890, says that he has used the juice of the unripe cocoanut 

 as a culture-fluid, and found it very satisfactory. The idea oc- 

 curred to him during a visit to Cuba that this fluid might be a 

 useful culture- medium for bacteria, and upon making the experi- 

 ment it vpas found that various species grew in it most luxuri- 

 antly. As it is contained in a germ-proofreceptacle, no steriliza- 

 tion of the fluid is required when it is transferred with proper 

 precautions to sterilized test-tubes, or is drawn directly from the 

 nut into the little flask, with a long and slender neck, which is 

 used for fluid-cultures. In these it may be preserved indefinitely, 

 Temaining perfectly transparent and ready for use. Heating the 

 fluid causes a slight precipitate. In the investigations which 

 have been made in Havana during the past two years, this fluid 

 was used very extensively, and it was found a great convenience 

 to have a sterile culture-fluid always at hand, ready for use at a 

 moment's notice. Moreover, it has certain special advantages for 

 the study of the physiological characters of various bacteria, 

 and for the differentiation of species. It contains in solution 

 about four per cent of glucose, in addition to vegetable albumen 

 and salts, which alone would make it a useful nutrient medium. 

 Certain micro-organisms multiply in it without appropriating the 

 glucose, while others split this up, producing an abundant evolu- 

 tion of carbonic acid, and giving to the fluid a very acid re-action. 

 As obtained from the nut, it has a slightly acid re-action, which 

 makes it unsuitable as a culture-medium for certain pathogenic 

 baoterisL, but when desired it is a simple matter to neutralize it. 

 For a large number of species of bacteria, and for the saccharomy- 

 «ctes, it constitutes a very favorable medium. 



Micro-Organisms in Great Cities. 



Professor Tamier, in a course of lectures in 1890, referred to 

 M. Miquel's researclies on tde relative abundance of micro-organ- 



isms in different places {The British Medical Journal). One to 

 the cubic metre of air is the proportion at the top of a high moun- 

 tain. It is stated in the Medical Record of Feb. 7 that in the Pare 

 de Montsouris, in the south of Paris, M. Miquel found 400 micro- 

 organisms to the cubic metre of air, while in the Rue de Rivoli 

 the proportion was 3,480. In a new room in the Rue Censier he 

 found 4,500 to the cubic metre ; more, that is to say, than in the 

 centre of Paris in the open air. In a room in the Rue Monge he 

 counted 36,000, in the Hotel Dieu 40,000, and in thePitie, an older 

 hospital, 819,000, micro-organisms to the cubic metre. At the 

 Observatory, Montsouris, 650,000 microbes were found in a gram 

 (15 grains) of dust ; in the room in the Rue Monge the amount 

 was 3,100,000. In the hospitals the proportion was so high, that 

 counting the number of microbes in a whole gram of dust was 

 found to be impossible. The dust is the great conveyer of micro- 

 organisms. A 3 A.M., when a city is most quiet, the fewest germs 

 are to be found in the air; at 8 a.m. the industry of domestic ser- 

 vants and dustmen has already made the air teem with germs ; 

 at 3 P.M. the proportion has again greatly fallen; at 7 p.m. it is 

 once more high, for many houses are being " tidied up ; " besides 

 sundry kitchen operations are unhygienic. Thus the "small 

 hours," unfavorable in many respects to patients hovering between 

 life and death, are the least septic of the twenty-four. The day 

 proportions indicate that household duties cause more septic dif- 

 fusion than is excited by traffic and industry. 



The Milk of the Egyptian Buffalo. 



According to the researches of Messrs. Rappel and Richmond, 

 of the Khedival Laboratory, Cairo, the milk of the Egyptian 

 buffalo, or gamoose {Bos bubalus), presents several characteristics 

 distinguishing it from that of the cow, which may well be re- 

 membered by medical men who have to treat patients, especially 

 infants, in Egypt or in other coufitries where this animal is com- 

 mon. The amount of fat, as we leara from the Lancet of Aug. 

 33, 1890, was found to be a good deal larger than in cow's milk, 

 the percentage in the specimens examined varying from 5. 15 to 

 7.35. The sugar, which appeared to be a hitherto undescribed 

 variety, differing from milk-sugar, was also found to be of larger 

 amount than that in cow's milk, the average percentage being 

 5.41. It is suggested that this sugar should be called tewfikose. 

 The fat, too, was found to differ from that of cow's milk, con- 

 taining minute quantities of sulphur and phosphorus, and yielding 

 four times as much caproic acid as butyric acid, whereas in cow's 

 milk the quantity of caproic acid is only double that of butyric 

 acid. The milk was also found to contain a small quantity of 

 citric acid. 



The Chemistry of the Tubercle Bacillus. 



At the clinic of Professor Nothnagel a very interesting investi- 

 gation on the chemical composition of the tubercle bacillus, says 

 the Lancet, has been carried out by Dr. Hammerschlag, who had 

 commenced his studies on the bacillus at Professor Nencki's 

 chemical laboratory at Berne. Two analyses of two different 

 cultm-e series were made. The cultures were 0.3 to 3 months 

 old, and 7.5 and 3.8 grams moist bacteria were obtained for the 

 analyses. They contained between 88.7 and 88.1 per 'cent water, 

 between 38.2 and 26.3 per cent substances soluble in alcohol and 

 ether; i.e., lecithin, fats, and a poisonous substance which, in- 

 jected subcutaneously into guinea-pigs, produced clonic spasms of 

 the muscles, acceleration of pulse and respiration, and finally 

 general convulsions and the death of the animal from twelve to 

 fifty-one hours after the injection. The residue which remained 

 after the extraction with ether and alcohol contained an albumi- 

 noid body and cellulose: therefore the tubercle bacilli seem to 

 differ from other bacteria by the high percentage of substances 

 soluble in alcohol and ether, as they contain between 26 and 38 

 per cent, while bacterium termo contains only 7.3, Priedlander's 

 diplococcus only 1.7, and the bacillus anthracis only 7.8 per cent. 

 It has been found that the presence of carbohydrates and glyce- 

 rine is necessary for the growth of the bacilli, and that albumens 

 alone are not sufficient as nourishing media for the tubercle bacil- 

 lus, which differs thereby from the other bacteria. By experi- 

 ments on rabbits, it was proved that a poisonous albuminoid body 



