ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
67 
cases (dug up at 60 and 95 days) were tubercle bacilli found, and then 
only in remains of introduced viscera. Tetanus microbes were not found 
after the 234th day. Staphylococci and Streptococci were regularly found 
during the first six months. M. teiragenus, pyocyaneus, and B. Friedlaender 
soon succumbed. 
The experiments with anthrax were intended to ascertain if there 
was any dissemination of the germs owing to the rise and fall of the 
soil-water, for the resistance of anthrax spores to putrefaction was settled 
long ago. One experiment gave positive results, and that was probably 
more or less accidental. 
The main result of the author’s work seems to be that, provided the 
soil around a corpse have good filtering properties, though the layer be 
not thick, there is practically no chance of dissemination of a virus, 
whether there be permanent or variable saturation of the soil. 
Epidemic among Pigeons caused by Bacillus coli communis.- — 
Prof. F. Sanfelice records an epidemic among pigeons caused by Bacillus 
coli communis. There were peritonitis, enlargement of the spleen, and 
suppurative inflammation of the mucosa of the oviducts. B. coli com- 
munis was found in the spleen, liver, and heart-blood. 
Pigmentary Functions of Bacillus pyocyaneus.f — Dr. M. Nicolle 
and Dr. Zia Bey record observations, made from four different samples 
of Bacillus pyocyaneus , relative to the pigmentary functions of this 
organism. The general characters of the four samples were as follows : — 
Mobile; not staining by Gram’s method; liquefying; presenting the 
classical aspect on potato; exhaling the characteristic odour; in vacuo 
growing with difficulty and without pigment. All were pathogenic to 
rabbits. All four samples produced more pyocyanin than the typical 
bacillus, and on one medium, the composition of which is not given, the 
pigment was greenish and non-fiuorescent, on the other four media green 
and fluorescent. The authors also found that the presence of phosphates 
in the media, while extremely favourable to the formation of fluorescent 
pigment, is not an indispensable condition thereof. 
While the pyocyanin, the greenish pigment, and the rusty-brown 
pigment (resulting from the oxidation of the fluorescent green) pass 
readily through the Chamberland filter, the fluorescent green pigment 
is entirely held back. 
Agglutinative Action of Typhoid-Serum. — The agglutinative action 
of the blood-serum of persons suffering from enteric fever on cultures 
of the typhoid bacillus, has been largely made use of for the diagnosis 
of this disease since it was introduced by Widal. J The method of 
Widal is simple, rapid, and effective. It merely consists in adding a drop 
of serum or of blood to ten drops of a young bouillon culture of Bacillus 
typhosus. If there be “clumping” and immobilisation of the micro- 
organism the diagnosis of enteric fever is confirmed. 
Prof. S. Delepine and Dr. E. J. Sidebotham § record the results of 
their investigation by this method on twenty-five cases of undoubted 
* Zeitschr. f. Hygiene u. Infektionskr., xx. p. 23. See Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. 
Parasitenk., l te Abt., xx. (1896) p. 753. 
f Ann. Inst. Pasteur, x. (1896) pp. 669-71. 
% Lancet, 1896, ii. p. 1371. § Tom. cit., pp. 1587 and 1665. 
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