ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
217 
strated in the nasal secretion 65 days after the pharyngeal membrane 
had disappeared. Experiments on animals proved that these bacteria 
were still quite virulent. The patient was a girl 12 years old, who had 
a slight attack of pharyngeal diphtheria. Nine days after the membrane 
on the fauces had vanished the nasal mucosa became affected, and, as 
before stated, diphtheritic bacilli were demonstrable for more than nine 
weeks. Hence it follows that a bacteriological examination of the nasal 
and pharyngeal secretions, &c. should always be made before a patient 
is pronounced fit to associate with healthy persons. 
Bacillus orthobutylicus.* — Bacillus orthobulylicus was isolated by 
M. L. Grimbert from seeds of Leguminosm which were macerated and 
cultivated in tartrate of lime. It is a strictly anaerobic organism, from 
3-6 ju long and 1*5 /x broad. When young it is extremely mobile, 
and then often resembles a bell-clapper ; as it gets older it gets 
straighter. As a rule it contains 2 or 3 spores, which appear when the 
movements cease. The spores can resist a temperature of 80° for 
10 minutes, but are destroyed at 85°. B. orlhobutylicus ferments gly- 
cerin, mannite, glucose, l<evulose, saccharose, maltose, lactose, galactose, 
arabinose, starch, potato, dextrin, inulin. The products of its fermen- 
tation are butylic alcohol and some isobutylic alcohol, butyric acid, 
acetic acid, and occasionally formic acid. The gases given off are 
carbonic acid and hydrogen. With regard to its action, the following 
points are noticeable. It ferments saccharose, maltose, and lactose without 
inverting them. It changes starch into maltose and dextrine, though 
the latter is transformed into maltose as it is produced ; thus its presence 
is not revealed during the course of fermentation. The deYtrin is con- 
verted into maltose by means of a special ferment. Inulin is attacked 
directly without being transformed into laevulose. 
From B. butyricus Pasteur, and from B. amylobacter van Tieghem, 
it is distinguished by not fermenting lactate of lime and not affecting 
cellulose. It is not coloured blue by iodine at any period of its 
development. From B. butylicus Fitz. it is differentiated by being 
able to ferment lactose and starch, and not inverting saccharose. And 
from B. amylozyme Perdrix, it is clearly separated by its power of making 
butylic alcohol with certain hydrates of carbon. 
The organism was cultivated in a fluid very much like Pasteur’s 
medium, and the details are given at considerable length and are very 
exhaustive. 
Comparison between Bacterium coli commune and Diplobacillus 
pnc^monise Friedlander.f — Herr J. Ury gives the following characters 
of these two bacteria, which have certain resemblances and certain distinct 
differences. 
Diplobacillus pneumoniae. Short rodlets of variable length, always 
possessing a capsule. Motionless. Stainable with the ordinary anilin 
dyes, decolorized by Gram’s method. In gelatin forms a k£ nail ” or 
grows over the surface. Copious gas development. Forms as crystals 
in gelatin. On agar forms a yellowish- white film and some gas. Potato 
* Ann. Inst. Pasteur, vii. (1893) pp. 353-402 (1 fig.). 
t Inaug.-Diss., Strasburg, 1894, 8vo, pp. 47. See Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u, Para- 
sitenk., xvi. (1894) pp. 579-81. 
