884 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



solid state, as paste, or in solution, in a manner analogous to 

 diastase. 



2. As in the case of diastase, different kinds of starch are attacked 

 by bacteria with different degrees of rapidity. 



3. The action of bacteria on starch is manifested only in the 

 absence of other sources of carbon nutriment, and when access of air 

 is not prevented. 



4. The action of bacteria on starch is effected by a ferment secreted 

 by them, and which, like diastase, is soluble in water, but precipitable 

 by alcohol. 



5. This ferment acts precisely as diastase in changing starch into 

 a sugar capable of reducing cupric oxide, but not possessed of pep- 

 tonizing properties. 



6. The ferment itself is also capable of acting on starch in the 

 absence of oxygen. 



7. The ferment is secreted by the bacteria also in neutral 

 solution of starch, and exerts its influence under these conditions. 



8. This influence is exj)edited in slightly acid solutions. 



Microbia of Fish.* — L. Olivier and C. Eichet have determined 

 the presence of microbes in the lymph of marine fish under normal 

 circumstances. If the lymphatic fluid of the conger-eel or mud-fish 

 is examined, there will almost always be found in it short motile 

 bacilli with sharp outline, which are coloured by anilin-violct, eosin, 

 and ammonium picrocarmiuate ; it is impossible to confound them 

 with any other organism. They are found principally in the lym- 

 phatic fluids ; they occur also sometimes in the blood of the heart, 

 but in smaller numbers. Their abundance varies greatly in different 

 species, and even in different individuals of the same species ; they 

 were observed best in the carlet, conger-eel, and gurnet. 



Besides the bacilli there are always in the lymph and blood small 

 hyaline refringent spheres, some of which are probably spores and 

 micrococci. 



A diastatic ferment is present in the lymphatic fluids ; the cerebral 

 and pericardic lymph behave towards starch in the same way as the 

 peritoneal ; a mixture of starch and of these fluids, with or without 

 the addition of ether or jjotassium cyanides (which kill the living 

 ferments without altering those that are soluble), becomes rich in 

 sugar after a few hours, though this reaction is not constant. 



A series of experiments on the autogenous culture of these bacilli 

 seems to prove, though further experiments are wanted on this point, 

 that they do not result from the germination of germs in the air, but 

 that they are propagated solely within the tissues of the host. Putre- 

 faction took place in only a very small number of cases. 



Dealing j with the question of their mobility, they find that, with 

 high powers, it is, as usual, diflftcult to distinguish between the passive 

 or Browniau movements, and those that are spontaneous. They 

 confine, therefore, the ai)plication of the term mobile to an active 



* Comptes Eendus. xcvii. (1883) pp. 119-22. Cf. this Jum-aal, ante, p. 402. 

 t Ibid., pp. 67i-7. 



