ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICKOSCJOPY, ETO. 
845 
Immunity Question.* — Prof. E. Klein Las made a series of experi- 
ments to demonstrate that bacteria when injected into frogs are not 
destroyed at the inoculation site. Virulent anthrax bacilli or lanthrax 
obtained from guinea-pigs dead of the disease were placed in sterile 
salt solution, and about 0*25 cm. was injected into the dorsal lymph-sac. 
After various lengths of time, 10 minutes, 30 minutes, 60 minutes, 2 
hours, 24 hours, the animals were killed and cultivations made direct 
from the beasts’ blood and also from the spleen. The gelatin tubes 
were incubated at 20°, and the agar tubes at 37° for 48 hours. 
These experiments showed that the microbes were very rapidly 
absorbed into the blood stream, and that their eventual destruction is 
certainly not confined to the inoculation site. Besides this the same 
experiments proved that, while the micro-organisms could be demon- 
strated with facility and in large numbers at 10, 30, and 60 minutes after 
injection, their number was considerably reduced after two hours. And 
as no leucocytosis was observed at the lymph-sacs, it seems probable 
that the diminution in numbers was not due to the interference either 
of the white cells of the blood or those of the spleen. 
In two other series Bacillus prodigiosus and Staphylococcus py. 
aureus were injected under similar conditions. In both series there 
was rapid absorption of the microbes, but in both the antagonism to the 
bactericidal influence was more marked even than in the case of 
anthrax. 
Action of Tobacco on some Pathogenic Microbes.! — Dr. V. Tassi- 
nari finds that tobacco smoke has a very well marked bactericidal power, 
and specially on the bacillus of cholera ; he thinks that when it or 
typhus is epidemic, the use of tobacco may be of some advantage. For 
the hygiene of the mouth tobacco may be seriously considered as a 
prophylactic agent against affections of the buccal cavity which are of 
parasitic origin. 
Bacteria of Raw Meat.J — The experiments of Kraus on raw 
butcher’s meat (beef, mutton, veal, pork), were made to ascertain the 
kind and number of bacteria present therein. The meat used was that 
of animals slaughtered 24 hours previously ; and from this for a period 
of 2-3 weeks plate cultivations were made daily. The author came to 
the conclusion that the bacteria found were common to all kinds of 
flesh, and that no particular sort of meat was specially affected by one 
or more kinds of bacterium. 
The bacteria present in raw meat may be very numerous, and the 
number is certainly augmented in hot dry weather, and of course 
varies with the time of the year. It was found that when mice were 
infected with the juice of decomposed meat, the same bacillus was always 
found in the animal after death. This bacillus appeared to be identical 
with Bac. enteriditis (Gaertner) and the notion that this bacillus may 
become pathogenic owing to the presence of Saprophytes has some 
justification. 
* Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. Parasitenk., xi. (1892) pp. 598-602. 
f Ann. 1st. d’lgiene Sperim. Univ. Roma, i. p. 155. See Ann. de Micrograpliie, 
iv. (1892) pp. 518-9. 
X Friedrich’s Blatter f. gerichtliche Medizin u. Sanitatspolizei, 1890, p. 343. 
See Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. Parasitenk., xi. (1892) pp. 602-3. 
