NOTES AND MEMORANDA. 
107 
point of view the fermentations caused by various Schizo- 
myceta, and also that due to Mucor racemosus. One of his 
most important results (published in 1876) is that glycerin 
in the presence of calcic carbonate enters into fermentation 
by the agency of a Bacterium. The chief products of the 
fermentation, in addition to carbonic acid and hydrogen, are 
normal butyl-alcohol and normal butyric acid. As by-pro- 
ducts are produced also in very small quantity ethyl-alcohol 
and one of the higher fatty acids, probably capronic acid. 
The Bacterium of this, particular fermentation has the form 
of a Bacillus. It is on the average two micromillimeters 
broad and five or six long. A smaller Bacillus occurs with it 
in glycerin fermentation, to which is probably due the pro- 
duction of the ethylic alcohol. Dr. Fitz found, moreover, that 
the remarkable Bacterium which gives the blue green colour 
to old pus, caii also excite fermentation in glycerin. He culti- 
vated this organism from pus by transference to a solution 
containing cBcium lactate and food-salts (ammonium chlo- 
ride as a nitrogen food). In a successful cultivation he 
obtained nof^SL coloured solution, but a colourless reduction- 
product of the colouring matter. Only on the surface was 
there a blue' tint. This was due to the access of oxygen to 
the surface, for when the solution was agitated with atmo- 
spheric air, it immediately assumed a deep blue colour, 
like that of the solution of copper sulphate. This pus-blue 
colouring niatter is soluble in water, is turned red by acids, 
and by alkalies again blue. It is, therefore, similar to litmus. 
The Bacteria which produce it, and multiply luxuriantly in 
the solution, are small elliptic bodies, about one to one and a 
half micromillimeters in length, and generally occur in 
couples. 
Dr. Fitz’s further researches on the fermentation of 
erythrite, mannite, gelatin, and albumen, as well as those 
on butyric and propionic fermentation, are of the greatest 
importance and interest. 
The separate tract of Dr. Robert Koch, entitled, ^ Unter- 
suchungen fiber die ^tiologie der Wundinfectionskrank • 
heiten ’ (Lei[)zig, 1878), is worthy of the most careful study 
from all persons interested in the progress of knowledge 
relative to the all-important Bacteria. In a first series of cx- 
])erimei]ts we have an investigation of septicaemia produced 
in mice by injection of putrid blood or infusion of meat 
beneath the skin. Death in some cases resulted in from four to 
eight hours, being due 7iot to the mxdiiplication of Bacteria 
but to the poisonous matter (sepsin) produced by them and 
injected with them. In other cases, death resulted after 
