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SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
was cultivated St. pyogenes aureus. During the after course of the 
disease the skin became covered with a miliary vesicular eruption, from 
the contents of which, and also from the urine, were cultivated S. 
pyogenes aureus , but no other organism. 
This case of Staphylococcus septicaemia with traumatic suppurative 
arthrosynovitis shows, says Sig. G. Tizzoni, that though the conditions 
for destroying the pathogenic agent are wanting in the blood, the 
organism strives to free itself therefrom in various natural ways, as by 
the skin and kidneys. Hence, not only the wound-discharges, but 
also the urine and linen of patients so suffering should be carefully 
disinfected. 
Appearance and Spread of Micro-organisms in Alimentary Canal 
of Animals.* — Until recently the time of the first appearance of micro- 
organisms in the intestinal canal could not be considered as settled. 
Rienstock maintained that no bacteria could be found in the meconial 
faeces of children fed entirely on milk. On the other hand Escherich 
discovered microbes in the rectal contents in from 4 to 18 hours after 
birth. Yet neither the one nor the other of these investigators touched 
the question when the presence of bacteria in the small and large intes- 
tine can be determined, and also left undecided whether bacteria could 
gain entrance to the intestinal tract per anum. 
To solve these problems D. Popofif made bacteriological examinations 
of the foetal meconium of calves and of the intestinal contents of newly 
born cats and dogs. In the latter instance animals which had been 
suckled and also those which had not were submitted to examination. 
The author’s results were as follows. The foetal meconium contains 
under physiological conditions neither aerobic nor anaerobic bacteria, 
but it serves as a good nutrient medium for bacteria. The time of the 
appearance and spread of microbes in the intestinal canal of newly-born 
animals depends entirely on the milk. The oesophagus is the only way 
by which bacteria and their spores penetrate into the intestinal canal. 
Bacteria can be demonstrated in the meconium twenty-four hours after 
birth. 
Influence of Variations of the Medium on the Action of Pyogenic 
Microbes.! — M. Herman made experiments with Staphylococcus pyogenes 
aureus , the cultivations being regularly transferred every two days to 
fresh calves’ bouillon to which 2 per cent, pepton and 1 per cent, sodium 
chloride were added ; the temperature was constantly 37°. Repeated 
countings of the plates showed that in forty-eight hours 1 ccm. of these 
cultivations contained an average of 520 millions of germs. 
The results attained are summed up by the author as follows: — 
(1) At least half a milliard of staphylococci are necessary (a two days’ 
cultivation at 37°) to produce a subcutaneous abscess in a rabbit. 
(2) Certain chemical substances, themselves not being pyogenic, favour 
the action of St. albus ; for example, 3 per cent, carbolic acid, watery 
extract of staphylococcus cultivation, and 1 per 1000 sublimate. (3) 
* Wratsch, 1891, No. 39. See Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. Parasitenk., xi. (1892) 
pp. 214-5. 
f Ann. Inst. Pasteur, 1891, p. 243. See Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. Parasitenk., 
x. (1891) p. 803. 
