430 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



which have their continual origin and seat in the incrustations of 

 coins in currency. The discovery of the presence of these organic 

 bodies (which, according to modern experiences, are generally re- 

 cognized as important factors in the spread of epidemics) on objects 

 so dispersed as coins, adds a new consideration in hygienic science. 

 It seems also very probable that to the vital activity of these 

 unicellular organisms, a share is due of the erosive process, per- 

 petually going on on the surface of coins in currency. 



The means for obviating the obnoxious influence of the organisms 

 would simply consist in boiling the coins after a series of years of 

 circulation, in a solution of caustic potash, and then cleaning the 

 surface thoroughly from the incrustation." 



The following is a description of the two new species :* — 



Chroococcus monetarum. Cells minute, subglobose, angular, from 

 4 to 8 cells enveloped in a common mucilage and associated in small 

 subglobose families. Diam. of cells • 925 fi ; diam. of families • 46- 

 0-56 fjL. 



Pleurococcus monetarum. Cells globose, with thick membrane, sub- 

 torulose (elevations 1/10 diam. of cell), undivided ; from 2 to 8 cells 

 associated in globose families ; cell-contents brightly coloured. Diam. 

 of cells • 0074-0 • Oil mm. ; diam. of families • 011-0 • 0129 mm. 



Eabies-t — L. Pasteur, with the assistance of MM. Chambrelent 

 and Eoux, has another communication on rabies. Inoculation has 

 been effected either by applying the poison of rabies direct to the 

 surface of the brain, or by injection into the blood. The former 

 would appear to be a long and difficult operation, but we are assured 

 that it may be well completed in twenty minutes, starting from the 

 moment in which the animal was being subjected to chloroform. 



Pasteur has already shown that the inoculation of the virus into 

 the blood is most often accompanied by paralytic seizures without 

 fury or barking, and that the first part to be affected is the spinal cord ; 

 and he has also already proved that the poison is to be found in the 

 brain and spinal cord. He has since experimented with nerves and 

 salivary glands, and he has been able to get poison effects with portions 

 of the pneumogastric and sciatic nerves, as well as with the maxillary, 

 parotid, and sublingual glands. It follows then that the whole of the 

 nervous system is able to cultivate the rabic poison, and we find in 

 this fact an explanation of the high degree of nervous excitement which 

 is so often a characteristic of rabies. Poison placed in carefully sealed 

 tubes is virulent after three weeks or a month, even when exposed to 

 a summer temperature. The fluid of the central nervous system is 

 sometimes, though not constantly poisonous : when limpid it is so, 

 but not when distinctly opalescent. Cultivation experiments of the 

 virus have not as yet been successful, but Pasteur is always able to 

 distinguish the brain of a healthy from that of a rabid animal. Both, 

 under the Microscope, exhibit an immense number of molecular 

 granulations, but in the rabid brain they are finer and more numerous. 



* Flora, Ixvii. (1884) pp. 173-6. 



t Cbmptes Keodus, xcviii. (1884) pp. 457-63. 



