510 SUMMARY OP CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



by the addition of extremely small quantities of corrosive sublimate, 

 acted fatally on the animals experimented on. 



Infectious and Parasitic Pneumonia. *— INE. Germain See finds 

 that pneumonia may be epidemic, and has endeavoured to see whether 

 such attacks are distinct from ordinary pneumonia ; such a view is 

 demonstrated to be erroneous, and it is clear that there is no pneu- 

 monia due to cold; whether sporadic or epidemic it is always 

 parasitic in origin. The parasite is in the form of an oval micro- 

 coccus 1 /x to 1 • 5 /A long and • 5 /a to 1 /x broad ; it may be separate, 

 or as a diplococcus, or in short chains of four. The capsule described 

 by Friedlandcr, is not regarded by See or Talamon as anything else 

 than the result of the method of preparation. Inoculated into animals 

 it produces common pneumonia, such as is seen in man ; in many 

 cases the microbe has extended beyond the lungs, and by invading 

 the neif^hbouring organs given rise to pleurisy and pericarditis of tho 

 same nature as the pulmonary inflammation. Pneumonia, then, may 

 be considered as a specific parasitic disease, which may bo reproduced 

 in animals, but cannot be brought about by physical or chemical 

 ii-ritations introduced into the lungs. It may be absolutely distin- 

 guished from such other forms of acute inflammation as bronchitis, 

 or broncho-pneumonia ; for in them microphytes play but a secondary 

 part, and the first cause of them is cold. Parasitic pneumonia has a 

 regular and definite course, just like erysipelas ; its duration does not 

 extend over nine days ; for about a week there is fever which then 

 suddenly dies down. In fine the course of the disease is cyclical. 

 See has found that antipyrine is a specific, and that it is well to sup- 

 port the strength of the patient by alcohol. 



Action of various Compounds on Tyrothrix.t— M. Chairy has 

 estimated the amount of various solutions (viz. sulphuric acid, chlorine- 

 water, sulphurous acid, hydrogen sulphide, alcohol, phenol, zinc 

 chloride, and alkaloids) requii-ed to maintain the transparency of solu- 

 tions of animal matter when inoculated with various species of Tyrothrix, 

 and also the quantities required to kill the spores of these bacteria. 

 He has also examined the action of various gases on the spores, tho 

 latter bein« collected on filter-paper dried by exposure to air, and then 

 subjected to the action of the gas. 



The nature of the liquid to which the bacteria are added has 

 very little influence on the quantity of a substance required to pre- 

 vent the development of the spores or to kill them. The influence of 

 the mass of bacteria present in the liquid is, however, very marked. 

 Those compounds which have a pronounced acid character (e. g. sul- 

 phuric acid, chlorine-water, hydrogen sulphide) exert the most 

 destructive action on the bacteria and their spores, whilst substances 

 like alcohol and the alkaloids are eflBcient only when present in 

 relatively considerable quantity. It is worthy of note, in connection 

 with this result, that the development of the bacteria tends to make 

 the liquid alkaline. 



* Comptes Eendus, xcix. (1884) pp. 931-3. 



t Ibid., pp. 980-3. See Journ. Chem. Soc— Abstr., xlviii. (188.5) p. 289. 



