570 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
potato the growth is thick, white or whitish-yellow to brown ; bouillon 
becomes turbid, a heavy scum forms, and in five days a sediment. With 
milk no visible effect for a long time ; during first three days there is- 
slight acidity, but no curdling, and a pleasant aromatic odour, which 
afterwards changes to that of cheese, is developed. After several weeks 
the milk becomes slightly brownish and translucent. 
Cultivations have been used in more than 100 creameries with very 
favourable results on the butter, the quality and buttery flavour (grass 
flavour) of which is improved in the summer and produced also during 
the, winter. The influence of the cultures on cream seems to increase 
until the third or fourth week, when it rapidly deteriorates, and a new 
culture must be used. Bacillus No. 41 is not only remarkable for pro- 
ducing the desired aroma and augmenting the quality of butter, but it 
actually destroys many injurious organisms which chance to be in the 
cream. 
Bacillus No. 41 differs from the other bacteria used in cream ripening 
in two important respects : (1) It is not an essentially souring organism;, 
though it adds the desirable flavour. (2) No previous treatment of the 
cream is needed to obtain good results. 
Mixed Infection in Diphtheria.* — In an examination of eleven 
cases, Dr. J. Bernheim found that the diphtheria bacillus was always 
accompanied by Streptococcus , and sometimes also by Staphylococcus. 
Numerous cultivations on media with and without the metabolic products 
of these organisms were made, but the most interesting result was that 
which showed the increased virulence of the symbiosis of the Streptococci 
and the diphtheria bacilli. Yery similar results were obtained by Dr. F. 
Beiche, who examined 42 bodies dead of diphtheria. In 64 per cent., 
Streptococci and Staphylococci were present ; in 45 per cent., Streptococci 
only. Dr. Ricker found in the placenta and the liver of the foetus of a 
woman who died of diphtheria Streptococcus in almost pure cultivation. 
Morphological Peculiarity of Diphtheria Bacillus. | — Herr C. 
Frankel pointed out some time ago that in fresh cultures of diphtheria 
on Loffler’s blood serum, branchings of some of the bacteria were occa- 
sionally to be detected. It has been recently found that the surest way 
to obtain cultures with branched forms is to cultivate the diphtheria 
bacilli on the surface of hard-boiled egg. When the diphtheria bacillus 
is inoculated on slices of eggs which have been boiled for 15-20 minutes 
there appears a yellowish-white dry tuft, which on microscopical exami- 
nation shows very large forms, “ a sort of giant growth,” so that the club- 
shaped swellings are the more striking. 
In order to demonstrate these branchings microscopically it is 
necessary to adopt an unusually careful procedure. The tufts of 
bacteria are to be rubbed up into a suspension with distilled water on 
a slide. A small quantity of Loffler’s or Ziehl’s solution is then added,, 
and, the cover-glass having been imposed, any excess of fluid is removed 
with blotting-paper. If the preparation is to be kept, it must be ringed 
round with wax. 
* Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. Parasitenk, l te Abf., xvii. (1895) pp. 416-9. 
t Hygien. Rundschau, 1895, No. 8. See Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. Parasitenk., 
1*° Abt., xvii. (1895) pp. 896-7. 
