806 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXV. No. 647 



sicians and Surgeons, and, after a short 

 business meeting for the reading of reports 

 and the nomination of new committees, a 

 number of interesting papers were pre- 

 sented on various general aspects of bacte- 

 riology, morphology, physiology, etc. The 

 joint meeting at the Rockefeller Institute 

 on Friday morning was devoted largely to 

 the discussion of subjects of interest alike 

 to the bacteriologist and the pathologist 

 and chemist. The papers at this session 

 were largely devoted to various investiga- 

 tions of sera, toxins, and the biology of 

 pathogenic, bacteria and other organisms. 

 The third session, on Saturday morning, 

 at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, 

 dealt with laboratory procedure, methods 

 of cultivation of certain bacteria, and 

 studies on the bacteriology of milk. 



The following officers were elected for 

 the present year : 



President— Dt. James Carroll. 



Vice-president — Professor F. D. Chester. 



Secretary-Treasurer — Professor S. C. Prescott. 



Council — ^Dr. J. J. Kinyoun, Dr. F. G. Novy, 

 Dr. F. P. Gorham, Dr. H. W. Conn. 



Delegate to the American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science — Dr. Erwin F. Smith. 



The papers, of which abstracts, or titles 

 alone, are presented below, were as follows : 



Movements of Certain Bacteria in Soils: 

 Kael F. Kblleeman and Edna H. 

 Fawcett, Bureau of Plant Industry, 

 Department of Agriculture, "Washington, 

 D. C. 



Two organisms have been studied in 

 connection with Pseudomonas radicicola, 

 Bacillus ochraceus and a form resembling 

 Bacillus coli. The latter kills Pseudo- 

 monas radicicola when in synthetic nitro- 

 gen-poor sugar bouillon, but not in soil ex- 

 tracts of favorable soils ; Bacillus ochraceus 

 has little effect upon Pseudomonas radici- 

 cola under either condition. 



In sterilized favorable soils saturated 

 with water Bacillus ochraceus, Pseudo- 



monas radicicola, and the paracolon organ- 

 ism grow with almost equal speed, progress- 

 ing about one inch in forty-eight hours. 

 In soils barely moist Pseudomonas radici- 

 cola progresses at the rate of about one inch 

 in seventy-two hours, while the two other 

 forms are reduced to a rate of about one 

 inch in eight days. These experiments 

 were all conducted at a temperature of 25° 

 C. At a temperature of 10° C. the rate 

 of Pseudomonas radicicola was reduced to 

 one inch in three days in saturated soil; 

 the two other organisms had made prac- 

 tically no growth at the end of thirty days. 

 Under none of the conditions of these 

 experiments did there seem to be any an- 

 tagonism in the soil between Pseudomonas 

 radicicola and Bacillus ochraceus or the 

 paracolon organism. 



Further Studies on Putrefaction: Leo F. 

 Rettger, Tale University. 



1. Real putrefaction is caused only by 

 obligate anaerobes. None of the obligate 

 aerobes and facultative anaerobes thus far 

 studied have revealed this property. Some 

 organisms like B. pyocyaneus and Proteus 

 vulgaris are able to slowly digest coagulated 

 egg albumin and blood serum, but the 

 products are not those of putrefaction. 

 Mercaptan in particular is invax'iably ab- 

 sent. 



2. B. putrificus (Bienstoek), the bacillus 

 of malignant oedema and of symptomatic 

 anthrax are putrefactive organisms, though 

 they may vary at times in this respect. 

 None of the strains of B. tetanus so far 

 examined have shown any putrefactive ac- 

 tion in the so-called egg-meat medium. 



3. Bacillus aerogenes capsidatus of Welch 

 (or B. enteritidis sporogenes of Klein) is 

 essentially a fermentative organism. At 

 no time has it been able to cause any ap- 

 parent decomposition of coagulated pro- 

 teids, although cultures of the organism 

 often have a decided putrefactive odor. 



