ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
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stage the spores would not develope in cultivations, but they would in 
the animal body ; in the second they would in both ; in the third they 
could be cultivated, but had no effect on the animal organism. Later on 
(fourth stage) there was no development. 
Influenza Bacillus obtained from Saliva of Domestic Animals.* — 
Dr. Fiocca describes a bacillus which he has isolated from the saliva 
of cats and dogs, and which he regards as being closely allied to the 
micro-organism described by Pfeiffer. 
Subcutaneous injections made on rabbits kill these animals in 24 
hours, the most prominent morbid phenomenon being acute inflamma- 
tion of the chief serous membranes. The microbe was found in all 
the tissues and juices of the body. The bacillus resembles that of 
rabbit septicaemia in shape but is smaller, its breadth being 
0*33-0*20 /x, and as its length is only a little greater, and as it 
usually is observed in pairs, it may easily be mistaken for a diplo- 
coccus. When grown on potato the coccoid form is predominant, but 
in bouillon and in blood of white mice the bacillary shape becomes 
apparent. With exception of fuclisin solutions it is not easily stained 
with anilin dyes. The ends of the organism were more chromophilous 
than the centre, and this polarity of the plasma is connected with re- 
production, for before fission the plasma aggregates at the ends, the 
bacillus elongates and then divides at the clear central interval. 
It is a motionless facultative aerobe growing well on the usual 
media, and is pathogenic to rabbits, guinea-pigs, rats, and mice. 
Microbe of Yellow Fever. f — Dr. Freire, who asserts that he has 
discovered the microbe of yellow fever, and that he has obtained a 
vaccine from attenuated cultivations, again defends his position against 
the attack of Sternberg and others who deny both the microbe and the 
vaccine. 
According to the author his microbe is a Staphylo-streptococcus, 
stainable with all the usual anilin pigments and growing on all nutrient 
media. The micro-organism produces both a yellow and black pigment, 
the former causing the jaundice, the latter pigment the black colour of 
the vomit. The attenuated virus was produced by breeding down on 
gelatin, and the third generation afforded a useful vaccine. 
According to the author the results of protective inoculations on man 
and animals are very favourable. 
Pneumococcus observed during Influenza Epidemic at Charkow.J — 
During last autumn and winter, says S. Kostjurin, there was in Charkow 
an influenza epidemic with frequent cases of pneumonia, the clinical 
course of which was different from that of ordinary croupous pneumonia ; 
the characteristic temperature curve and the ruddy sputum were absent. 
The cases were under the care of Prof. Obolensky. Microbes which 
were apparently identical with Fraenkel’s diplococcus were always 
* Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. Parasitenk., xi. (1892) pp. 406-9. 
t Deutsch. Med. Wochenschr., 1891, No. 17. See Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. 
Parasitenk., x. (1891) pp. 805-6. 
% Wratsch, 1892, No. 4. See Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. Parasitenk., xi. (1892) 
pp. 471-2. 
