492 Dr. A. Harden and Mrs. D. Norris. Production of [Nov. 22 r 



Conclusions. 



1. Antelope may remain in apparently perfect health for a year after 

 having been infected with a human strain of T. gamhiense. 



2. One antelope was still capable of infecting clean laboratory-bred 

 G. palpalis 315 days after it had been infected. 



3. A small quantity of blood taken from one antelope 327 days after its 

 infection was proved by inoculation into a white rat to be infective. 



4. As the interval after the infection of the antelope increases their 

 infectivity, as tested by " cycle " transmission experiments, dissection of flies 

 which have fed upon them, and by the injection of the buck's blood into 

 susceptible animals, appears to diminish. 



5. A duiker was infected with a human strain of T. gamhiense by feeding 

 infected G. palpalis upon it. 



The Bacterial Production of Acetylmethylcarbinol and 2.3-JButylene 

 Glycol from Various Substances. 

 By Arthur Harden, F.R.S., and Dorothy Norris. 



(Received November 22, 1911— Read February 1, 1912.) 

 (From the Biochemical Department, Lister Institute.) 



In working out the action of B. lactis aerogenes on glucose quantitatively, 

 Harden and Walpole (1) found that, in addition to the products already noted 

 in the action of B. coli communis on glucose (2), a small quantity of acetyl- 

 methylcarbinol, CH 3 CH(OH)COCH 3 , and a considerable proportion of 

 2.3-butylene glycol, CH 3 -CH(OH)-CH(OH)-CH 3 , were formed, the latter 

 corresponding to about 33 per cent, of the carbon of the sugar fermented. 

 The production of acetylmethylcarbinol by the action of Tyrothrix tenuis, 

 B. suhtitis and B. mesentericus vulgatus, and similar organisms on glucose, had 

 been previously noted by Grimbert (3) and by Desmots (4). 



The presence of acetylmethylcarbinol is of especial interest, as it has been 

 shown to be the substance responsible for the Voges and Proskauer reaction (5). 

 In view of this fact, and of the interest attaching to this mode of decom- 

 position of glucose, it becomes a matter of some importance to discover 

 what substances will give rise to acetylmethylcarbinol and butylene glycol 

 during fermentation, and also which bacteria are capable of producing these 

 two compounds. B. lactis aerogenes and B. cloacce have been shown to 



