846 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
Bacillus of Grouse Disease.* — Dr. E. Klein, who has for some years 
been engaged in investigating the cause of grouse disease, attributes 
it to a bacillus belonging to the same group as those which cause fowl 
and duck cholera, swine fever, and American hog cholera, &c. All 
these bacilli are oval in shape, and generally arranged in dumb-bells ; 
they are aerobic, do not liquefy gcdatin, but exhibit considerable and 
definite differences as regards rapidity of growth. 
Chemico-bacteriological Examination of Sausages.'j' — Sig. Serafini 
has made a chemical and bacteriological examination of twenty-one 
sausages of different age and make. In twenty cases he found a liquefy- 
ing bacillus greatly resembling that isolated by Nauwerck from a case 
of sausage poisoning. After a careful examination it was identified as 
B. mesentericus vulgatus Fliigge, and it is suggested that this organism 
came from the sausage-skin rather than from the sausage-meat, since the 
author was able to isolate this bacillus from the large intestine of pigs 
by means of plate cultivations. 
It was found that, both in sausages intended to be eaten fresh and 
in those intended to be kept for a time, various species of bacteria 
were present in considerable numbers. It would therefore seem that 
in meat sausages which can be kept for a considerable time the bacteria 
must exist in the spore-form or in a latent condition, so that for the 
preservation of sausage-meats the object to be obtained is to promote 
those conditions which will prevent the further development of micro- 
organisms. 
The conservation of sausage-meat chiefly depends on the drying of 
the meat, and the presence of cooking salt contributes to this, as it pre- 
vents the rapid development of bacteria, and thus allows the meat time to 
dry before it has become spoilt. For each kilogram of meat 50 grm. of 
cooking salt is sufficient. It is not necessary to push the drying to its 
extreme limits ; it is only necessary to continue it till there is 35-40 
per cent, of water. 
From what was previously said, it is obvious that the sausage-skins 
should be carefully cleansed and disinfected. 
Diffusion of Tetanus Spores through Air.+ — Herr B. Schwarz has 
made some experiments to ascertain if tetanus spores could be diffused 
through the air, and hence to explain the appearance of this disease in 
surgical wards of hospitals. It was necessary to find out if the spores 
could be disseminated through the air along with the dust, to what 
height they could be carried, and whether they would deposit on the 
floors and walls of the infected places. 
For this purpose 150 ccm. of dust, an equal bulk of water, and 
20 ccm. of impure gelatin cultivation of tetanus bacilli, were mixed 
together and allowed to dry. The material thus obtained was powdered 
and strewn about on the floor of a small place selected for the purpose. 
Hot pans filled with sterilized gelatin were then placed in the room at 
* ‘ The Etiology and Pathology of Grouse Disease, Fowl Enteritis, and some 
other diseases affecting Birds,’ London, 1892, 8vo, xii. and 142 pp. (53 figs.). 
f Arch. f. Hygiene, xiii. p. 173. See Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. Parasitenk., xi. 
(1892) p. 766. 
X Arch, per le Scienze Med., xv. No. 19. See Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. 
Parasitenk., xi. (1892) pp. 697-8. 
