58 
The America 
n Naturalist. 
Feb., II. No SI 
low since the 
ranging from - 
morning befor 
-8- to — 14- 
Feb^ 15. No 
snow for fou: 
r days. Temj 
Feb., 24. Three days with no snow. Temperature between 
— I I and —21. Heavy frost. 
1st portion 228 bacteria. 
These figures seem to indicate that snow lying on the 
ground some time and exposed to low temperatures, always 
contains a considerable number of bacteria, and that the low 
temperature in winter exercises no considerable effect on the 
bacteria contained. 
A number of different kinds of bacteria are contained in 
snow. Janowski found both those which liquefy gelatine, and 
those that do not, the former in larger numbers than the 
latter. He states that one point in particular interested him 
considerably, namely that he always found in plates from 
newly fallen snow, as in river water, many colonies which 
liquefy very rapidly while snow that has been long exposed 
to extreme cold contains few or none of these. He concludes 
that this kind, at least, is affected unfavorably by low tem- 
perature.—! M. E. Dodd. ) 
The Chemical Action of Certain Bacteria. — A 
paper appeared in the Journal of the Chemical Society for 
August, 1888, by Robert Warington, on "The Chemical 
Action of some Micro-organisms." Some twenty of the or- 
ganisms experimented upon were received as pure cultures 
from Dr. Klein, while six or seven others were isolated by 
the author himself. The action of these separate species was 
tested in four respects : i. The hydrolysis of urea. 2. Action 
on milk. 3. Capacity for reducing nitrates, 4. Power of pro- 
property of effecting the hydro- 
Jt rarely met with among micro- 
.se, out of twenty-four organisms 
nly be shown to possess it." 
The whole of the organ- 
isms which fail to gelatinise milk are organisms that do not 
liquefy gelatin. ... On the other hand the whole of the 
organisms which act on milk as ferments liquefy gelatin. . . 
, . We may venture therefore to predict that every liquefy- 
Waringtoi 
1 finds that "the 
lysis of urea 
is apparently bu 
organisms ; i 
in the present ca 
tried, only t 
wo could certainl 
Of the ac 
tion on milk he ; 
