248 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
In preparing it, a concentrated solution (B) may be made of the last 
three salts, and another (A) of the first. A proper amount of A is to 
be added to B after dilution to the desired percentage. By this method 
only a small part of the insoluble calcium phosphate will be precipitated. 
Solutions containing 0*2 to 0*5 per cent, of salts were found most useful. 
Cultivating the Bacillus of Seborrhcea.* — M. Sabouraud has over- 
come the difficulty of isolating the bacillus of seborrhoea and of alopecia 
areata by cultivating in a very acid medium, the ingredients of which 
are as follows : — Pepton, 20 grm. ; glycerin, 20 grm. ; acetic acid, 
5 drops ; water, 1000 grm. ; gelose, 13 grm. The temperature used 
was 35° C. A white coccus was disposed of by using immunised 
gelose ; i.e. by preparing the gelose with fluid in which the coccus had 
been cultivated. The same result was obtained by heating the cultures 
to 65° C. for 10 minutes. 
Preparing Plague-Serum.f — Prof. A. Lustig and Dr. G. Galeotti 
prepare a vaccine from the plague bacillus which has the chemical 
characters of a nucleo-proteid. The bacillus, the virulence of which has 
been ascertained, is cultivated on large agar plates for three days at 
37°. The surface is then scraped, and dissolved in 1 per cent. KHO. 
After filtration through paper, the vaccine is obtained by precipitation 
with acetic or hydrochloric acid, or by saturation with sulphate of am- 
monium after neutralisation. The precipitate, having been repeatedly 
washed, and dissolved in a very weak solution of sodium carbonate, is 
ready for use. Transit through the Chamberland filter deprives the 
vaccine of much of its activity. The minimum lethal dose of the acid 
precipitate is 5*28 mgrm. per 100 grm. weight of animal. Animals 
vaccinated with very small, or with one-half or one-third of the smallest 
fatal dose, injected subcutaneously at intervals of two days, are rendered 
quite indifferent to large injections of virulent cultures. The immunity 
lasts about five weeks. From animals thus rendered immune, is obtained, 
after 14 days, a preventive and curative serum, of which 1 ccm. suffices 
to prevent peritoneal infection and to cure a rat weighing 180-200 grm., 
which had been peritoneally injected with four to five loopfuls of virulent 
culture. 
The authors are endeavouring to obtain a prophylactic and antidotal 
serum from the horse. 
New Method of obtaining Diphtheria Antitoxin.^ — Dr. Smirnow, 
of St. Petersburg, has succeeded in obtaining a diphtheria antitoxin, 
which is stated to be of considerable effective value, by electrolysing 
virulent diphtheria broth cultures. In itself the antitoxin appears to be 
quite harmless, and its preparation simple and rapid. 
Technique of Serum Diagnosis.? — Dr. A. S. Delepine, after alludiug 
to the methods used since the beginning of 1896 for demonstrating the 
action of blood or blood-serum on the corresponding microbes, states that 
he has finally adopted the following simple but effective procedure, for 
* Brit. Med. Journ., 1897, i. p. 1029. f Tom. cit., pp. 1027-8. 
X Arch. Sci. Biol. Petersburg, iv. (1S96) No. 5. See Nature, April 22, 1897, 
pp. 597-8. § Brit. Med. Journ., 1897, i. pp. 967-70. 
