62 



Anniversary Meeting. 



[Nov. 30, 



been made towards the completion of our knowledge of the life-history 

 of these minute but important organisms. Dr. Klein has shown that 

 the infections pneumo-enteritis, or typhoid fever of the pig, is, like 

 splenic fever, due to a Bacillus. Having succeeded in cultivating 

 this Bacillus in such a manner as to raise crops free from all other 

 organisms, Dr. Klein inoculated healthy pigs with the fluid contain- 

 ing the Bacilli, and found that the disease in due time arose and 

 followed its ordinary course. It is now therefore, distinctly proved 

 that two diseases of the higher animals, namely, "splenic fever" 

 and " infectious pneumo-enteritis," are generated by a contagium 

 vivum. 



Finally, Messrs. Downes and Blunt have commenced an enquiry 

 into the influence of light upon Bacteria and other Fungi, which 

 promises to yield results of great interest, the general tendency of these 

 investigations leaning towards the conclusion that exposure to strong 

 solar light checks and even arrests the development of such 

 organisms. 



The practical utility of investigations relating to Bacillus organisms 

 as affording to the pathologist a valuable means of associating by com- 

 munity of origin various diseases of apparently different character, is 

 exemplified in the " Loodiana fever," which has been so fatal to horses 

 in the East. The dried blood of horses that had died of this disease in 

 India has been recently sent to the Brown Institution, and from seeds 

 therein contained a crop of Bacillus anthracis has been grown, which 

 justified its distant pathological origin by reproducing the disease in 

 other animals. Other equally interesting experiments have been made 

 at the same Institution, showing that the " grains " which are so largely 

 used as food for cattle, afford a soil which is peculiarly favourable for 

 the development and growth of the spore filaments of Bacillus ; and 

 that by such " grains " when inspected, the anthrax fever can be pro- 

 duced at will, under conditions so simple that they must often 

 arise accidentally. The bearing of this fact on a recent instance in 

 which anthrax suddenly broke out in a previously uninfected district, 

 destroying a large number of animals, all of which had been fed with 

 grains obtained from a particular brewery, need scarcely be indicated. 



In Systematic Botany, which in a nation like ours, ever extending 

 its dominions and exploring unknown regions of the globe, must 

 always absorb a large share of the energies of its phytologists, I can 

 but allude to two works of great magnitude and importance. 



Of these, the first is the " Flora Australiensis " of Bentham, com- 

 pleted only a year ago ; a work which has well been called unique in 

 botanical literature, whether for the vast area whose vegetation it 

 embraces (the largest hitherto successfully dealt with), or for the 

 masterly manner in which the details of the structure and affinities of 

 upwards of 8,000 species have been elaborated. Its value in reference 



