224 
SUMMARY OP CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
conclude that the antiseptic effect of the gastric juice is to be ascribed 
to its containing hydrochloric acid. 
New Schizomycetes.* — In a review of the additions to the flora 
of Bohemia as far as fresh-water algae and saprophytic bacteria are 
concerned, made in the course of the year 1888, Prof. A. Hansgirg 
enumerates the following new species of Schizomycetes : — Leptothrix 
cellaris, Bacillus vialis, Mycothece cellaris, Hyalococcus cellaris, Micrococcus 
thermophilus, M. suhterraneus. 
Bacterium phosphorescens-t — In discussing the origin and causation 
of the light emitted by Bacterium phosphor escens^ Dr. K. Lehmann 
observes that there are two obvious possibilities to be considered. 
First the illumination may be a vital phenomenon accompanied by the 
production of CO 2 , heat, &c. Secondly it may arise from the oxidation 
of a photogenous substance excreted by the cells, and resembling the 
pigment formation of many chromogenous species. This photogen 
must therefore be very sensitive to chemical reagents. 
In favour of the former view are the following facts. Cultivations 
when emitting light always contain illumiaant bacteria, and in this 
condition can always be successfully cultivated. All germicidal media 
destroy the illumination. Lastly, in correspondence with the great 
resistance B. phosphor escens shows to low temperatures, the illuminative 
power is preserved at similarly low temperatures. In association with 
this is to be counted in the fact that while development diminishes 
with increased temperature, so also does the emission of light. 
These facts seem to show that the light emitted by the fungi is 
always associated with their vitality, and is therefore not reconcilable 
with a photogenic property unless the latter has ascribed to it all the 
characteristic of a living plasma. 
Specific Microbe of the contagious Bovine Pneumonia. J — M. S. 
Arloing, by making direct plate-cultivations from the pulmonary secre- 
tion of an ox affected with cattle-plague, was able to isolate four micro- 
organisms, a bacillus which rapidly liquefies gelatin, and three micrococci. 
These he calls Pneumobacillus liquefaciens, Pneumococcus gutta-cerci^ 
Pneumococcus lichenoides, Pneumococcus flavescens. The author assumed 
that one of these four microbes was the specific cause of the pneumonia. 
By means of subcutanous injection of pure cultivations, it was found that 
the bacillus produced the greatest effect, and also that when injected in 
larger doses, pulmonary effects were produced resembling those of the 
original disease. From those results the author concludes that he has 
discovered the specific cause of contagious bovine pneumonia. 
Two pseudo Hay-Fungi.§ —Dr. L. Klein describes two bacilli which, 
from their resemblance in certain particulars to B. subtilis, he calls false 
hay-fungi. 
The first of these, B. leptosporus, was found as an impurity in a flask 
containing grape-sugar-meat-extract solution, wherein it formed a thick 
* SB. K. Bohm. Gesell. Wiss., 1889, pp. 121-64. 
t Biologisches Centralblatt, ix. (1889) pp. 479-80. 
X Comptes Reuclus, cix. (1889) pp. 428-80, 459-62. 
§ Ceutralbl. f. Bakteriol. 11 . Parasitenk., vi. (1889) pp. 313-9, 345-9, 377-83 
(2 pis.). 
