84 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
part of tlie body, was first brought into notice by Bollinger in 1876. 
The first cases were discovered in oxen, but a few years afterwards 
the same disease was found in man. The macroscopical appearances 
vary with the anatomical distribution, and also with the rapidity of the 
disease. The microscopical appearances of the fungus are of two kinds, 
club-shaped elements which tend to arrange themselves in rosettes, and 
delicate filaments. The club-shaped elements, which were the first to be 
recognized, easily stain a red colour, while the filaments, which were 
only discovered comparatively recently, stain blue. It is owing to this 
staining difiereuce that Prof. Crookshank was able to demonstrate the 
intimate connection between the two ; for, by making careful preparations, 
he has shown that the filaments spring out of the clubs, and that “ the 
structure of a rosette consists centrally of a dense mycelial network, and 
externally of a hymenium of basidia.” 
The question of transmissibility from man to lower animals is easily 
answered in the positive, for calves and rabbits have been successfully 
inoculated with the fungus. 
By the aid of the Microscope, the author was able to show that 
“ wens ” or “ dyers ” are only local manifestations of the disease ; 
2)i*eviously they were regarded as the result of a strumous or tubercular 
diathesis. 
These seven reports are copiously illustrated from photographs and 
microscopical preparations, in all twenty-three plates. 
Micro-organisms of the healthy Stomach and their action.^ — 
M. J. E. Abelous confirms the results of Pasteur and Duclaux relative 
to the action of microbes in the stomach, and the part they play in diges- 
tion. The microbes were taken from the author’s stomach by washing 
it out after fasting. The usual precautions were taken to prevent 
external contamination, and the mouth and pharynx were previously 
washed out with sublimate. The microbes were cultivated on gelatin, 
pe|)tonized and glycerined gelatin, potato, gelatinized serum, neutral 
and acidulated bouillon. The species isolated were Sarcina ventriculi, 
Bacillus pyocyaneus, Bacterium lactis aerogenes^ Bacillus suhtilis, Bacillus 
wycoides, Bacillus amylohacier, Vibrio rugula, and nine other species, 
which are distinguished by letters. A, B, C, &c. These include one 
coccus and eight bacilli. The chief facts about these are that their 
resistance to an artificial gastric juice is greatly in excess of the mean 
duration of digestion in the stomach, and that they are potentially 
anaerobic. 
The author also examined the separate and collective action of the 
microbes in certain sterilized alimentary substances. These were skim- 
milk, egg-albumen, fibrin, gluten, lactose, cane-sugar, glucose, and starch. 
From these experiments he concludes that these microbes act more or 
less energetically on alimentary substances, but that the real theatre of 
their action is rather the intestine than the stomach. 
Micro-organisms of Malaria.t~Br. M. B. James concludes from his 
researches that (1) there occur in the blood of malaria patients appear- 
ances which are included under the name Hsematozoon malarise ; (2) the 
half-moon- shaped bodies appear only in chronic cases ; (3) the segment 
* Coiui[)tes Rendus, cviii. (1889) pp. 310-2. 
t Medical Record, xxxiii. (1888) {). 209. 
