542 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



Fresh Method of Vaccination for Symptomatic Anthrax.* — 

 Messrs. Arloing, Cornevin, and Thomas call attention to subcutaneoiis 

 injection of mitigated virus as a method of vaccination for this 

 disease quite as efficient as venous and tracheo-broncLial injection. 



The serous matter from anthrax tumours is attenuated or mitigated 

 by exposing it to heat. It is first dried at a temperature of 32^ C. 

 in a current of air ; a certain quantity is then well mixed with twice 

 its weight of water and kept on a stove heated to from 85° to 100°, 

 for six hours. Only small quantities shoiild be thus treated at a 

 time, and the stove should be so regulated as to recover its initial 

 temperature in less than tuo hours from the introduction of the 

 mixture. 



In the use of the mixtures thus obtained, which are of dilferent 

 degrees of attenuation according to the heat employed, great care 

 must be taken to adapt the proportions and strength of virus employed 

 to the susceptibility of the animals exposed to its action. It is best 

 to make two inoculations with an interval of six or eight hours 

 between tl.em, the first with virus mitigated by a temperature of 100°, 

 the second with virus which has been exposed to 85°. A sheep 

 requires "01 gramme of each kind of virus, an ox -02 or -03 gramme, 

 according to its size ; this is mixed in a mortar with 100 times its 

 weight of water, and introduced by a syringe under the skin ; the 

 side of the neck or the inside of the thigh is the place selected. 

 The result of experiments made on sheep, calves, and a heifer was a 

 slight local swelling in the last-named animals ; this gradually dis- 

 appeared ; more considerable swellings were produced in the sheep. 

 The temperature usually rises • 2° to • 1° after the first, • 5 to 1° after 

 the second inoculation. The resistance of inoculated subjects to the 

 disease was proved by test-exj)eriments. Besides its great j)ower of 

 resisting heat, the micro-organism of symptomatic anthrax, when dried 

 as above directed, is able to resist the action of antiseptic agents. 

 When obtained from serous fluids it usually occurs in the sporiferous 

 condition. 



Organic Particles in the Air of Mountains.f — P. Giacosa has 

 made a series of experiments on the nature of the organic particles 

 found in the air at different heights on Monte Marzo, a mountain in 

 Piedmont 2753 m. high ; the observations were made in August by 

 means of the pipette-bulbs recommended by Tyndall; and were 

 controlled by similar observations in the plain at the foot of the 

 mountain. 



He finds the air of the mountain always to contain germs, although 

 in different proportion to that of the plain. The Schizomycetes were 

 very much more rare ; almost the whole of the particles found belonged 

 to the class of micrococci. The observations appear to show that the 

 currents of air are constantly giving a circular shape to the particles 

 susj>ended in it, and that such particles can then be raised to great 

 heights, although they occur there in smaller quantities than at lower 



* Comptes Keudus, xcv. (1882) pp. 189-91. 



t Atti R. Accad. Sci. Torino, xviii. (1883) pp. 2G3-72 (1 pi.). 



