536 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
observed. But from the clinical aspects of the disease it was considerel 
desirable to obtain more accurate observations of the biological characters 
of this microbe by experiments on animals. 
Pure cultivations of the bacteria were obtained by the author in the 
usual manner. They were found to grow on agar at ordinary tempera- 
ture, more above than along the track, as a greyish- white overlay with 
rounded ends. Bouillon became cloudy in twenty-four hours, and in 
four to six days a mucinoid substance appeared. They retained their 
form and virulence for quite a month. Animals were not killed by 
subcutaneous or intra-thoracic injection. The pleura was unaffected, 
and no exudate was observed. The spleen was always increased to three 
to four times its ordinary bulk. Ked hepatisation disappeared after 
three to four weeks. The bacteria were stained by Loeffler’s and Gram’s 
methods. 
The experiments on animals gave the following results. Babbits are 
immune. Guinea-pigs and white rats sickened both after subcutaneous 
and intra-pleural injection, but recovered after five to six weeks. The 
post-mortem appearances resembled those of croupous pneumonia. The 
author believes that the diplococcus found by him is characteristic rather 
of influenza than of simple pneumonia. 
Yeasts and Bacteria of Natural and Artificial Wines.* — MM. 
Schaffer and von Freudenreich have reported on the micro-organisms 
existing in natural and artificial wines, and, considering the method of 
manufacturing and composition of these latter, the authors’ results are 
not surprising. 
Of the ten natural wines examined, only one contained bacteria, and 
this one, from imperfect treatmeut, had always been cloudy. Wines 
which had been several years in bottle were sterile, containing neither 
yeast nor bacteria. Artificial wines contained numerous bacteria, and 
the authors throw out the suggestion that the presence of these bacteria 
may have some connection with gastric disorders. 
Microbes of the Healthy Eye.j — Santos Fernandez found, from 
thirty-seven bacteriological examinations of the eyes of sixteen physicians 
and students in Habana, thirty times micrococci, five times bacilli, once 
Saccharomyces , six times Staphylococcus pyogenes aureus , four times 
Staph, habanensis Gibier, and twelve times Staph, cereus albus Passet. 
Sporeless Anthrax.t — So long ago as 1883 it had been shown that by 
cultivating anthrax in bouillon, to which 1/2000 of bichromate of potash 
had been added, the faculty of spore-formation became definitely lost, 
but without any diminution in the virulence of the micro-organims : these 
results have been confirmed by numerous other inquirers, and recently 
by M. E. Boux, whose procedure is as follows: — Ten test-tubes were 
filled with bouillon, to which various quantities of carbolic acid had 
been added, the first containing O' 02 per cent., the second 0*04 per 
cent., and so on up to 0*2 per cent. After sterilization each tube was 
* Landwirthsch. Jahrbuch. d. Schweiz, 1891. See Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. 
Parasitenk., xi. (1892) pp. 467-3. 
f Cronica medico-quirurgica de la Habana, 1891, No. 3. See Centralbl. f. 
Bakteriol. u. Paras. tenk., xi. (1892) pp. 472-3. 
+ Annal, Inst. Pasteur, 1890, } p. 25-34. See Bot. Centralbl., 1. (1S92) pp. 57-8. 
