ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
575 
the lymph taken from the vesicles into the blood circulation, while 
the least certain are subcutaneous and cutaneous inoculations. Intra- 
venous injections give rise to febrile phenomena, vesicles in the mouth, 
on the udder, and on the hoof. When the vesicles appear the virus 
vanishes from the blood. For infection 0*0002 ccm. of fresh lymph 
suffices. The lymph virus is easily destroyed by heat, but can be kept 
in a refrigerator for fourteen days or longer. In the blood of immune 
animals, substances are present which appear to neutralise the effect of 
lymph. Cattle and pigs can be artificially immunised, either by means 
of lymph which has been heated, or by the injection of lymph-immune 
blood-mixture. Hence it would appear that the foot and mouth disease 
can be successfully treated by protective inoculation. 
Gonotoxin.* — Dr. J. de Christmas has obtained positive results in 
his experiments with the toxin of Gonococcus. Subcutaneous injection 
of cultures into rabbits produced abscesses, apparently the result of 
secondary infection due to the lessened resistance of the tissues to 
the action of the toxin. Besides the local reaction, a general effect, 
marked by emaciation and anaemia, is produced. Intravenous injection 
induces febrile phenomena and emaciation, and if the quantity injected 
is large, death in a short time from collapse. Thus the general results of 
infection of gonotoxin in cultures are intoxication and cachexia, and the 
local are suppurative. The toxin isolated from liquid cultures by fil- 
tration, when injected into veins, produced quite similar results. Heat- 
ing the culture was not found to impair the toxic effect, provided the 
coagulation point of the albumen dissolved in the liquid was not 
exceeded. Gonotoxin is precipitated from cultures by alcohol and a 
strong and stable solution by means of glycerin. The culture was 
evaporated in a water-bath at 50° with 10 p.c. of glycerin. Though the 
toxin does not produce appreciable coarse lesions when introduced into 
the blood circulation, marked effects follow from injection into serous 
sacs and into the anterior chamber of the eye of animals. No results 
were obtained from inoculation of the mucosal surfaces of the eye and 
the genito-urinary tract of animals, but a typical blenorrhagia was easily 
excited in the human urethra. At first the discharge contains numbers 
of the epithelial cells lining the urethra, but afterwards the discharge is 
principally composed of leucocytes. Attempts to obtain antitoxic serum 
from the blood of immunised goats and rabbits were, though difficult in 
the attainment, attended by some measure of success, though it is ad- 
mitted that the antitoxic power of the serum was not strong. 
Bacillus denitrificans agilis and Denitrification. f — Sig. G. Ampola 
and Sig. E. Garino have found that Bacillus denitrificans agilis exists 
normally in turf, but is unable to exert its influence as long as the 
reaction of the medium or the manure is acid. When the acidity is 
diminished or abolished, the organism becomes capable of exercising its 
normal biological functions. 
iEtiology of Foot and Mouth Disease.* — Prof. Y. Babes and Dr. G. 
Proca, in a preliminary paper, relate their experiments and observations 
* Ann. Inst. Pasteur, xi. (1897) pp. 609-39. 
t Centralbl. Bakt. u. Par., 2 te Abt., iii. (1897) pp. 309-10. 
t Op. cit., l te Abt., xxi. (1897) pp. 835-49 (6 figs.). 
