572 SUMMAEY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



grow deep, tliey are usually ellipsoidal. In tlie course of a few days 

 the deep colonies are surrounded by bubbles of gas (hydrogen). 



Glischrohacterium does not liquefy gelatin, and, although it grows 

 best in the presence of oxygen, is capable of anaerobic development. 

 It grows well on agar, bouillon, milk, potato, serum, and egg-yolk, as . 

 well as on gelatin. In human saliva, either fresh, mixed, or sterilized, 

 it thrives wonderfully. Human urine inoculated with some of the 

 original urine, or with a pure cultivation, becomes viscid and stringy in 

 8-10 hours at 37° C, but experiments with dogs' urine sometimes failed. 



The morphological characters of this bacterium are not affected by 

 the chemical reaction of the nutrient media or by light, but are con- 

 siderably affected by temperature. Thus, it grows best at 37° C, but 

 not above 41°, or below 5° 0. It is extremely sensitive to desiccation. 



In experiments on animals the authors found that this bacterium, 

 when injected into the pleural or peritoneal sacs (guinea-pigs, rabbits) 

 is not harmful; that it does not multiply in the stomach or bladder 

 (dogs) ; that under the skin (guinea-pigs, rabbits, and dogs) it is emi- 

 nently pyogenic; that injected directly into the blood (dogs) it pro- 

 duces slight albuminuria, with structural alteration of the kidney, and 

 after two or three days causes the urine to become stringy ; and that, 

 as a rule, the GUschrobacterium dies between the second and fourth 

 days in the blood and in the organs, except in the kidney of the dog, 

 where it lives for a time as yet undetermined. 



Mucous Disease of Hyacinths.* — Dr. A. Heinz has found that 

 hyacinths are affected by a wasting disease, attended with the production 

 of a foul-smelling mucus. The flowering parts are specially attacked, 

 but no part is exempt. Microscopical examination showed that the 

 mucus and the tissues were full of a bacterium, which is a mobile rod, 

 invariably single, with rounded ends, 4-6 /a long and about 1 jx thick. 

 They propagate by direct fission, and stain well with all the usual dyes. 



The bacillus was easily cultivated pure on gelatin, agar, and potato, 

 and healthy plants inoculated from these cultivations showed evidences 

 of disease, most marked about the inoculation spot, in twenty- four hours. 

 Hence the author concludes that this microbe is the actual cause of the 

 disorder, and the name given to it is Bacillus Hyacintlii septicus. It 

 does not liquefy gelatin. Superficial colonies on plates are circular, 

 about 2 mm, in diameter, bluish- white in colour, with a somewhat darker 

 centre. Those lying deeper are oval, and of a dull yellowish-white. 

 The cultivation differences on gelatin and agar are not noteworthy. 

 On potato there forms in thirty-six hours a yellow slimy layer, and in a 

 few days the cultivations give off a strongly offensive smell. 



Other authors, notably Sorauer and Wakker, have described wasting 

 diseases of hyacinths, attended with the production of mucus. These 

 also were caused by bacteria, but Dr. Heinz considers that the disease 

 observed by him is distinct from the yellow and white mucous degenera- 

 tion of Wakker and Sorauer. 



Bacteriology of Snow.f — Dr. F. G. lanovsky, who has examined a 

 February snow, collected immediately and from one to three days after 

 its fall, finds: — (1) That even when collected during its fall, snow is 

 invarialDly found to contain living bacteria in considerable numbers, 



* Centrulbl. f. Bakteriol. u. Parasitenk , v. (1889) pp. 535-9. 



t Vratch, 1888, p. 727. Cf. The Microscope, ix. (1889) pp. 115-7. 



