Makch 23, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



459 



nies reddening this medium are tested for 

 coagulation of milk, indol production, lique- 

 faction of gelatin, and gas production in 

 glucose broth. A recent comparison of the 

 two methods has given the following re- 

 sults : 



Positive results. Negative results. 

 Fermentation tube direct 21 34 



Acid carbol broth 26 24 



Although the number of experiments is 

 small, the results indicate the distinctly 

 greater delicacy of the latter method when 

 applied to the waters used in these tests. 

 The application of this method is interfered 

 with, to some extent, by the same species 

 that complicates the result in the fermenta- 

 tion tube, but the use of the litmus lactose 

 agar facilitates the separation of B. coli, 

 especially if the plate be examined within 

 24 hours after the sowing. 



Demonstration of Actinomycosis and the Causa- 

 tive Fungus : Peofessob H. C. Ernst. 

 A specimen of very marked affection of 

 the udder with the Actinomyces fungus 

 was reported. Attention was called to the 

 comparative rarity of the disease in this 

 marked form, and the fact that the text- 

 books say but little about it as a possible 

 source of infection. A number of micro- 

 scopic preparations were demonstrated. 

 (This case is also to be published in the 

 Journal of the Boston Society of the Medical 

 Sciences, Volume IV.) 



A comparison of B. Coli communis from dif- 

 ferent species of animals : V. A. Mooeb 

 and F. R. Weight. (Bead by F. E. 

 Wright.) 



Different forms of Bacillus coli communis, 

 from contaminated water supplies and va- 

 riations of the same organism in tissues 

 of diiierent species of animals, have led to 

 this investigation to determine the range of 

 variation of Bacillus coli communis in (1) 

 different species of animals, and (2) in 

 the same species, always under supposedly 



healthy conditions. As the work was not 

 begun until late in the summer, this paper 

 is to be regarded onlj' as a report of prog- 

 ress. 



The methods which were followed were : 



(1) To take a loop- full of the mucus from 

 the large and small intestines and inoculate 

 a series of gelatin plates from each. 



(2) To make sub-cultures from six typ- 

 ical spreading colonies which appear the 

 same. 



(3) To replate from these sub-cultures, 

 to make sure of no contamination. 



(4) From the second series of plates to 

 make sub-cultures in the special media. 



(5) To determine the pathogenesis by 

 inoculating such experimental animals as 

 the rabbit and guinea pig. 



Thus far the results have shown that the 

 organisms . found in the horse, the dog, the 

 cow, the sheep, and the hen, are more 

 numerous in the large than in the small 

 intestine. 



The number of colonies from the same 

 part of the intestine of the same species 

 varies much, e. g., in the large intestine of 

 the horse, in some cases the colonies have 

 been too numerous to count ; again, there 

 have been four or five hundred, and again, 

 no more than a dozen. Where the number 

 of colon hacillis was greatest, other species 

 were few ; where they were few, either a 

 fungus or a micrococcus predominated in 

 numbers. The most marked variations in 

 the organism from the different species have 

 been in the changes which they produced 

 in milk, and in the various sugars and in 

 their pathogenesis. The range of variation 

 of the bacillus from the same species of 

 animals has been found to be narrow. 



Tlie invasion of the Udder by Bacteria : Ar- 

 chibald R. Ward. 



The extent to which lactiferous ducts of 

 the cow's udder are invaded by bacteria, 

 was determined by means of bacteriological 



