ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
93 
thicker, shorter, and some were coccoid. In liquid media there were no 
spirilla forms. They grew well in bouillon and in pepton salt solution, 
forming a scum on the surface. In calves’ serum they grew up in 4 days at 
37°. Injected into the peritoneal sac of guinea-pigs, they caused death in 
24-28 hours from peritonitis, the bacilli being found both in the exuda- 
tion and in the blood. After having been cultivated for 9 months the 
organism reverted, in its morphological, cultural, and pathogenic cha- 
racters, to the typical cholera vibrio. The authors infer that the bac- 
teriological diagnosis of cholera may occasionally present difficulties 
on account of morphological and biological deviations of the bacteria 
from the recognized type. 
Action of Toxin of Staphylococcus pyogenes aureus on the Rabbit.* 
— MM. Mosny and Marcano find that a 10 ccm. intravenous injection of 
the filtrate of culture of Staphylococcus pyogenes aureus will kill rabbits 
in a few seconds. They can withstand an injection of 1-2 ccm., though 
this has no vaccinating influence ; for the animals, after emaciating for 
some weeks, die of an attack of diarrhoea. Post mortem examination 
shows usually peritonitis, suppuration of the lumbar lymphatic glands, 
and invariably miliary abscesses on the intestinal walls, chiefly of the 
large intestine. Cultivations and stained preparations showed that these 
abscesses invariably contained microbes from the intestine. Now these 
microbes, taken either directly from the intestine or from abscesses in 
the intestinal wall, have no effect when inoculated on the peritoneum, 
while an intravenous injection of them kills within 24 hours, the rabbit 
dying of septicaemia. 
These results are taken to show that if a toxin be circulating in the 
system, microbes, otherwise inoffensive, may emigrate from the intestine 
and excite fatal suppuration. Human pathology is full of examples of 
disease due to the influence of apparently saprophytic microbes acting 
on an organism weakened by some antecedent infection. 
M. Yerneuil suggests the adoption of the term Staphylococcosis for 
disease due to the action of Staphylococci. 
Placental Tuberculosis.! — Dr. Lehman has seen typical tuberculosis 
in the placenta of a patient suffering from chronic pulmonary and laryn- 
geal phthisis. The tuberculous foci lay in the chorionic tufts, and 
therefore in the foetal part of the afterbirth. The child died 10 days 
after birth, and no tubercular lesions were found on post mortem exami- 
nation. Sections of the placenta 0 • 5 cm. apart showed that the tubercular 
foci were either round grey bodies, and sharply delimited, like tubercles 
in other organs, or were yellow and caseous. Small numbers of tubercle 
bacilli were found in all the tuberculous foci. The preparations con- 
firmed the author’s hypothesis that tubercles first form in the decidua, 
and are enabled by mere contiguity to pass to the placenta. 
Erysipelas Serum and Tuberculosis.^ — Dr. R. Emmerich, after 
noticing that cases of disease, both malignant and inflammatory, have 
* Comptes Rendus, cxix. (1894) pp. 962-3. 
f Berlin Klin. Wochenschr., 1894, p. 601. See Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. Parasi- 
tenK.,xvi. (1894) p. 647. 
t Miinchener Med. Wochenschr., 1894, p. 549. See Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. 
Parasitenk., xvi. (1894) pp. 669-70.] 
