300 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



Pneumonia-cocci in Dormitories as a Cause of Pneumonia.* — 

 R. Eramerlich confirms the observations of Kerscbensteiner that 

 pueumouia may be caused by micrococci in the sleeping apartments 

 of those attacked by the disease. He obtained material from the 

 dormitories in a hosj)ital where the disease was rife, cultivated it in 

 Koch and Luffler's" Fleischwasscr-pepton-gclatine," and injected with 

 it rabbits, porpoises, and mice, which soon died. In their blood and 

 organs he found sei)tic organisms identical with Kerschensteiner's 

 bacillus of jineumonia. These were afterwards identified with the 

 pneumonia-coccus of Friedliinder. 



"Rauschbrandpilz," a parasitic cattle-disease. t — Neelsen and 

 Ehlers describe a disease known as " Eauschbrandpilz," which is 

 destroying a considerable number of cattle in some parts of northern 

 Europe. It manifests itself in the form of flat painful swellings on 

 the extremities, filled with a dark red frothy fluid, accompanied by a 

 "rushing" noise from the escape of gas. The disease is caused by a 

 Schizomycete, a Clostridium, which may penetrate either the muscles 

 or the intestines. It occurs both in the bacillus and in the coccus- 

 form, and produces spores in special individuals which swell up into 

 a lemon- or club-shape. The disease can be propagated by infection 

 in porpoises ; but the organism has this peculiarity, which distinguishes 

 it from other allied pathogenous forms, that by no transference from 

 one host to another can its virulence be in the least diminished. 



Bacterioidomonas undulans.J — J. Kiinstler describes a second 

 species of his lately described new genus, wliich he found in the 

 intestine of the black rat. The body is elongated, slightly atte- 

 nuated at either end, and 34 /x in length ; the whole presents slow 

 undulatory movements ; in the centre there is a nucleus, and two 

 smaller nuclei are often also to be found, one at each end of the body. 

 Locomotion is rapid, and is effected by the aid of a long and very 

 fine cilium. The reproductive phenomena are very similar to those 

 of B. sporifera ; they commence with a considerable increase in the 

 refractive power of the body, while the addition of iodine reveals the 

 presence of a quantity of amyloid substance ; the protoplasm then 

 becomes concentrated at various points, and gives rise to elongated 

 spores. These are set free by the dehiscence of the walls of the 

 body, undergo several divisions, and taking on a spirillar form 

 gradually grow up into the appearance of the adult. These new 

 organisms resemble the Bacteria in their mode of nutrition by simple 

 imbibition, by being difiicult to colour, by the excessive fineness of 

 their flagellum, by their endogenous sporulation, and by the form of 

 the spores. They differ in their size, their constant mobility, their 

 nucleus, and the number of their spores. 



* Fortschr. der Medicin, ii. (1884) No. 5. See Bot. Centralbl.. xx. (1884) 

 p. 145. 



t Neelsen. SB. Naturf. Gesell. Rostock, Jan. 26, 1884. Ehlers, Untere. 

 uber d. Eauschbrandpilz, Rostock, 1884. See Biol. Centralbl., iv. (1884) pp. 

 513-5. 



{ Comptes Rcndus, c. (1885) pp. 371-2. 



