108 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
of working biologists. For twelve years tliis Journal has averaged a 
thousand pages in each volume, and its circulation is understood to bo 
more than one thousand copies. This result, it is generally known, has 
only been obtained by the yearly expenditure of a sum of money larger 
than the annual income of the Society ; Mr. Crisp’s banker alone, in all 
probability, knows how large that sum is. But Mr. Crisp has not only 
given money ; he has also devoted a large amount of time to editing and 
improving the character of the Journal, and by his own contributions 
and criticisms has done a great deal in making intelligible to micro- 
scopists the modern theories of the Microscope. His retirement from, 
no less than his election to, the office which he holds marks a critical 
period in the history of the Society. But though his legal duties are so 
much increased as to leave him no choice, he will still be intimately 
associated with the Society, as he is willing to act as its Treasurer, and 
we may be sure that his interest in it is in no way abated.” * 
j8. Technique. t 
(1) Collecting- Objects, including Culture Processes. 
Cultivation of Actinomyces. | — Dr. Kischensky inoculated blood- 
serum and agar to which 6 j)er cent, of glycerin had been added with 
actinoniyces granules. The next day evidences of growth were observed. 
In the course of a few days filaments associated with coccus forms 
were seen under the Microscope, and after two or three weeks the ends 
of the filaments were observed to possess bulb-shai^ed expansions (in- 
volution forms). In cultivations on potato the fungus grew in the form 
of yellowish granules. In gelatin at 39*^ C. the filaments seemed to 
grow in a radiate way, and sometimes showed bulbous expansions at 
their ends. The filaments were easily stained by Gram’s method. 
Whether these cultivations were really pure cultivations of actino- 
myces seems doubtful at present, as inoculation experiments were not 
tried. 
Pure Cultivation of Actinomyces.§ — For some months past, says 
Dr. 0. Bujwid, “I have easily obtained pure cultivations of actinomyces, 
and have further ascertained the important fact that it is an anaerobic 
fungus.” 
The method adopted by the author was to take some of the granules 
from the abscess-pus of a person suffering from actinomycosis and culti- 
vate them in ordinary gelatin, ordinary and glycerized agar, sterilized 
milk and potato at a temperature of 36° C. For some of the tubes 
10 per cent, pyrogallic acid was used to absorb the oxygen (Buchner’s 
method). II In these anaerobic cultivations the points inoculated were 
observed to have swelled in about 48 hours, while the rest of the tubes 
only showed copious growth of Staphylococcus aureus, S. albus, and some 
sort of rodlet. 
* Athemenm, 1890, Jaii. 11, p. 53. 
t Tills subdivision contains (1) Collecting Objects, including Culture Pro- 
cesses; (2'' Preparing Objects; (8) Cutting, including Imbedding and Microtomes; 
(1) Staining and Injecting ; (5) Mounting, including slides, preservative fluids, &c. ; 
t6) IMiscellaneous. 
X Arcb. f. Experimentelle Pathol, u. Pharmakol , xxvi. (1889) p. 79. 
§ Centralbl. f, Bakteriol. u. Parasitenk., vi. (1889) pp. G30-3 (2 photos.). 
II See this Journal, 1888, p. 1039. 
