ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETO. 571 



able of these being that vibrio 3 varies from 5-150 fx long and from 

 0-8-1 /It thick. 



The inference drawn by the author is that every kind of bacterium 

 shows, for the same conditions and for the same media, the same forms ; 

 but for different external conditions and for different media many kinds 

 of bacteria alter theii" course of development and change their shape and 

 appearance. Hence it is incorrect to say that only one of these forms 

 is the true or normal condition, and that all others are pathological. 



Flagella of the Cholera Bacilli.* — It is a legitimate inference, says 

 Dr. E. Neuhauss, from the fact of their lively movements, that cholera 

 bacilli are possessed of flagella. After failing in various ways to demon- 

 strate this appendage, the author hit upon the following method, which 

 gave positive results. Cultivations were obtained in meat broth of 

 bacilli, which in four weeks showed, instead of the tiny comma bacilli, 

 long spirilla and large thick bacilli. Most of these had lost their 

 motility, but a few specimens were still capable of movement. Cover- 

 glass preparations, stained black by means of Campeachy wood extract 

 and neutral chromate of soda, as well as unstained cover-glass prepara- 

 tions, failed to show the flagellum ; nor by means of the Microscope 

 could any such appendage be observed when the bacilli were mounted 

 unstained in water, and pressed between the slide and cover-slip ; but by 

 photographing a preparation put up in this last-mentioned way, a nega- 

 tive was produced which showed a delicate spiral flagellum attached to a 

 short much curved bacillus. By repeatedly taking the same field, and 

 focusing for different levels, another flagellated bacillus was photo- 

 graphed. This result the author considers a great photographic triumph. 

 Subsequent examination showed that the cultivation employed had 

 remained quite pure. 



Glischrobacterium.f — Dr. P. Malerba and Dr. G. Sanna-Salaris 

 have isolated from the urine of a female, aged fifty, a bacterium which 

 they believe to be the cause of a viscid stringy condition of this fluid. 

 They also mention another case of glischruria, from which the same 

 organism has been isolated. Besides the viscidity, this urine is remark- 

 able for a considerable acidity, which lasts for 40-50 days at ordinary 

 temperatures. It contains a few oxalates, is precipitated by tannic acid, 

 and then loses its viscosity. 



The micro-organism to which this viscid condition is ascribed is a 

 coccus (long. diam. 1 • 14-0 • 57 /a ; trans, diam. • 41 fx). During its 

 cultivation certain morphological differences were observed, and these 

 were found to be due to differences of media, age, and temperature. 

 Thus, in fresh non-peptonized bouillon the microbe is a bacillus endowed 

 with a slight rotary movement ; it may or may not be constricted in the 

 middle, and may be arranged in pairs, or in chains. In old cultures the 

 chains are superseded by a mass of bacteria, and long chains are rarely 

 seen, except between 21° and 27°. 



It stains well with fuchsin and methylen-blue. 



Glisclirohacterium grows on a large number of nutritive media : the 

 colonies are spherical, with depressed centres and somewhat crenated 

 margins. Occasionally they present an appearance like concentric rings 

 traversed by lines radiating from centre to periphery. If the colonies 



♦ Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. Parasitenk., v. (1889) pp. 81-4. 

 t Arch. Ital. Biol., x. (1888) pp. 358-71 (1 pi.). 



