ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 509 



the solution, originally clear, had become clotidecl ; after a further 

 40-48 hours this cloudiness had vanished, and a bacillus-film of 

 greyish-white colour had formed on the surface of the liquid. After 

 a while, this film broke uj) and sank in fragments to the bottom ; 

 sometimes one or more additional films formed in succession, but 

 were so thin as to be nearly invisible, whilst bacilli were disseminated 

 throughout the liquid, during these latter stages. The chemical 

 examination of the liquids showed that ammonia and volatile fatty 

 acids were formed at the expense of the creatinine and sarcolactic acid 

 of the flesh extract ; the formation of the fatty acids from the latter 

 occurring especially in the latter period of the action, when the bacillus 

 was acting as an anaerobic ferment. In similar solutions to which 

 glycerol and some calcium carbonate were added, the formation of 

 lactic, butyric, and a small quantity of succinic acid was noticed. 

 The gases evolved were carbonic anhydride, hydrogen, and nitrogen. 

 Substituting grape-sugar for the glycerol, the formation of mannite, 

 lactic acid, butyric acid, and (doubtfully) of caproic acid was observed. 



Cholera Bacillus.* — Johne in an article on the comma-bacillus, f 

 gives the methods of culture, staining, and preparation of the 

 organism, and emphasizes its differences under cultivation from any 

 of the other bacteria yet compared with it, paying especial attention 

 to the bacillus of Finkler and Prior. To emphasize the difference 

 still more, he gives figures illustrating the different appearances of the 

 cultivations of the two organisms, and the different ways in which 

 they liquefy the culture-material (Nahr-gelatin). 



Buchner | finds a constant difference between Koch's and Finkler 

 and Prior's organisms under cultivation, and adds his testimony to 

 the effect that confusion of the two should be impossible. 



Doyen § gives an account of various forms of bacteria, observed 

 microscopically and under cultivation, in seven cases of cholera. 

 These were found in the liver and kidneys ; but as no data are given 

 as to when the post-mortem examinations were made, how soon after 

 death, &c., and as no inoculation experiments are as yet announced, 

 the author is hardly justified, from these observations alone, in herald- 

 ing " the end of the reign of the comma-bacillus." 



Inoculation of Guinea-pigs with Comma-Bacillus. |] — Dr. E. Van 



Ermengem describes the results of inoculation of guinea-pigs with 

 cultivations of comma-bacillus. 



An infinitesimally small dose injected into the duodenum pro- 

 duced death in 12-48 hours, a large dose in, sometimes, less than 

 two hours. Post-mortem examination showed the small intestine to 

 be gorged with a rose-coloured sero-fibrinous fluid, sometimes floccu- 

 lent and whitish. In all cases of slow death the intestinal contents 

 formed an almost pure cultivation of germs, which were also found 

 in other parts of the body. Cultures from which the comma-bacillus 

 had been removed by filtration, or in which they had been destroyed 



* Science, v. (1885) pp. 253-4. 



t Zeitschr, f. Thiermed., xi. (1885) p. 87. 



X Miincb. Artzl. Intell., 1885, p. 549. 



§ Soc. Biol., Dec. 13th, 1884. 



II Bull. Soc. Belg. Micr.. xi. (1885) pp. 93-4. 



