I3 2 



Scientific Proceedings (119). 



immediately after a period of severe alcoholic intoxication and 

 that the testes did not show interstitial or vascular fibroid changes 

 such as might be expected if a severe intoxication of any sort had 

 been long operative. The testes of these five cases all showed 

 abnormal spermatogenesis. Vacuolar degeneration of the ger- 

 minal epithelium, often showing a zonal distribution in the tubules; 

 hyperchromatic spermatogonia, atypical division figures with 

 hyperchromatic nuclei; retardation of spermatogenesis with rela- 

 tive increase in the number of spermatids and the formation of 

 multinuclear forms attached to the wall or free in the tubular 

 lumina, were noted in varying degrees in the different cases. 

 These changes are not specific for alcohol but resemble those 

 experimentally produced in laboratory animals by alcohol and 

 lead, and those described as resulting from certain acute infections 

 in man (typhoid fever, influenza and pneumonia). Whether, in 

 the five cases here studied, the testicular changes were a direct or 

 an indirect result of the acute alcoholism can not now be stated. 

 A causal relationship of some sort seems evident from the con- 

 stancy of the changes and from the supporting experimental 

 evidence. The changes found are in excess of those which it is 

 necessary to produce in the testis experimentally in order to 

 demonstrate a blastophthoria by breeding experiments. It seems 

 quite certain that in an earlier stage spermatozoa must have been 

 produced still capable of fertilization, but incapable of producing 

 normal offspring. The observation here recorded is therefore con- 

 sidered an additional contribution to the subject of human alcoholic 

 blastophthoria. 



66 (1813) 



A statistical study of the form and growth of a spore-bearing 



bacillus. 



By ARTHUR T. HENRICI. 



[From the Department of Bacteriology and Immunology, 

 University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minn.] 



The rate of growth of Bacillus megatherium has been measured 

 by direct counting of the cells, using a haemocytometer; and the 

 average length of the cells has been determined by measurements 



