684 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



New Pyogenetic Bacillus.* — MM. Eietsch and du Bourguet describe 

 a bacillus observed by the latter in tbe affection called tbe ulcer of Yemen 

 at Beyrout. Tbe bacillus varies a good deal in length, and its width is 

 by no means constant ; its mean length is 1 • 6 /a, and it is ordinarily 

 twice as long as wide ; sometimes it is so short as to look almost like a 

 coccus. In gelatin it forms colonies under the form of yellowish spots, 

 which soon become mammillated in appearance, and rapidly liquefy their 

 medium. When inoculated hypodermically its action is almost nil on 

 pigeons, fowls, and white mice ; it produced, in two guinea-pigs, tumours 

 which were absorbed after a few days. The rabbit is more sensitive, 

 and in the pus produced in it the bacillus was found ; this gave pure 

 cultures in gelatin. A rabbit killed by it had a large number of the 

 bacilli in the peritoneal fluid, the heart, the liver, and particularly the 

 lung. 



New Species of Chromogenous Microbe.f — Mr. G. F. Dowdeswell 

 describes under the name of Bacterium rosaceum metalloides a new microbe 

 which forms a remarkable pigment altogether similar to magenta-red. It 

 developes best in solid cultures ; and when in full vital activity it 

 varies from 6-8 /x in breadth, and is about twice as long as wide, but 

 may be larf e:*, so that it presents considerable variations, in this respect. 

 In this stage it is invariably immobile, and developes rapidly by repeated 

 transverse divisions, but never forms chain, or zoogloeae of any kind. 

 "When it passes into a quiescent stage it forms densely aggregated 

 masses of cells. After a few days it may exhibit the metallic brightness 

 which distinguishes it, and after a month or six weeks it ceases to grow. 

 It developes most vigorously and gives the most richly coloured colonies 

 when inoculated on slices of boiled potato. In certain liquids it gives 

 rise to the formation of gas, and if cultivated in a confined space produces 

 a disagreeable odour. As it cannot resist any elevation in tempera- 

 ture, it cannot have any direct pathogenetic action on warm-blooded 

 animals. It is probably a saprophyte on vegetable materials. 



* Comptes Kendus, cviii. (1889) pp. 1273-4. 

 t Ann. de Micrographie, ii. (1889) pp. 310-22. 



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