94 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
got well owing to chance infection with erysipelas, records some experi- 
ments on the effect produced on tuberculosis of rabbits by artificial 
infection of erysipelas. The rabbits were inoculated in the anterior 
chamber of the eye with tuberculosis, and on the same day received an 
intravenous injection of 2 ccm. of a bouillon culture of erysipelas cocci. 
In one case the disease was arrested ; in others its progress was im- 
peded. In consequence of this modified success, the author expresses the 
hope of being able to successfully treat tuberculosis with erysipelas 
serum free of cocci, and already the new serum is obtainable for the 
treatment not only of tuberculosis but of other diseases. 
Vitality of Cholera Vibrios on Food-stuffs.* — Herr Pachomoff 
finds, from experiments on fruit and vegetables infected with cholera 
vibrios, that these organisms live longer on boiled than on raw vegetables, 
&c., and thus arrives at almost the same result as Friedrich. 
Bacterial Pigment as a Specific Diagnostic Criterion.!— Herr P. 
Schneider has endeavoured to ascertain how far the chemical reactions 
of the pigments produced by different species of bacteria might be used 
for discriminating between them, and he found that (1) Bacterial pig- 
ments may to some extent be distinguished by their behaviour to solvents ; 
(2) Under similar conditions the same organism produces the same pig- 
ment; (3) Two species of bacteria, morphologically and culturally 
unlike, may produce the same pigment ; (4) Most species which 
apparently produce the same pigment, and indeed are otherwise very 
similar, may be easily differentiated by the reactions of their pigments. 
Antitoxic Serum.f — Since Behring’s discovery, says M. E. Roux, it 
has been established that the serum of animals immunified to various 
contagious maladies is preventive and therapeutic of these diseases, yet, 
though the neutralizing property is well marked in diphtheria and 
tetanus, it appears to be absent from the blood of animals vaccinated 
against other diseases such as liog-cholera, pneumonia, cholera, typhoid. 
The animals are protected against the microbe, but not against its toxin, 
and the reason of this is that the serums act as stimulants to phagocytic 
.cells. And since a preventive serum acts as a cell-stimulant, it is con- 
ceivable that the serum of an animal vaccinated against one disease may 
be efficacious against another; hence this preventive power need not 
always be specific. 
But protection against a living microbe is not the same thing as 
protection against its toxin. With regard to the formation of antitoxins, 
the first notion was that they were derived from the toxin by a trans- 
formation within the body ; but this idea is negatived by the fact that 
antitoxin (e. g. tetanus) is reproduced as fast as it is withdrawn, and the 
quantity of antitoxin in the blood is not so much proportional to the 
quantity of toxin introduced as to the manner of its introduction. 
It would seem that antitoxin is a celUproduct ; yet, though the anti- 
toxic property is easily demonstrable by mixing the toxin and antitoxin 
* Protokoll. d. Kaukasischen Geeellsch., 1893-4, No. 9. See Centralbl. f. Bak- 
teriol. u. Parasitenk., xvi. (1894) p. 193. 
t Inaug.-Diss., Basel, 1894, 44 pp. and 2 pig. See Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. 
jParasitenk., xvi. (1894) p, 633. J Ann. Inst, Pasteur, viii. (1894) pp. 722-7. 
