ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
575 
Bacterium Chauvsei.* * * § — Drs. G. P. Piana and B. Galli-Valerio 
describe a variety of Bacterium Chauvsei which was obtained from the 
muscles and lungs of a cow dead of symptomatic anthrax. It is a very 
small bacillus, mobile, highly refractive, and easily stainable. The spores 
and the usual forms of B. Chauvsei were never observed, and this bacillus 
varied not only in size but also in shape (cocci, small and thin bacilli, 
and thick swollen cells, a few having spores). The virus, which is but 
little resistant to heat, w r as more active than that of the normal breed. 
The diminished resistance of the virus is probably due to the infrequency 
of the spores. Phagocytosis is a marked phenomenon, and especially so 
in the more resistant animals. The incorporated bacilli are always small, 
and devoid of spores or strongly coloured corpuscles. 
Bacillus suitable for exterminating Mice.f — Herr S. S. Meresh- 
kowsky isolated from Spermophilus musicus a bacillus which was found 
to be suitable for the destruction of field and house mice. The bacterium 
was found both in viscera and in the blood. On microscopical examination 
of bouillon cultures the bacillus appears to have much resemblance in 
size and movements to Leefffer’s mouse typhoid bacillus. In meat-pepton- 
bouillon at 37° *5 there is clouding, followed by the formation of a white 
scum which breaks up when shaken. It develops a characteristic odour 
resembling that of freshly voided horse-urine when cultivated in large 
bulk of bouillon. It does not liquefy gelatin, and the colonies on plates 
are circular and brownish. It does not develop gas on saccharated media, 
and on agar and potato exhibits no special peculiarity. Its growth is 
suspended when oxygen is excluded, but it retains its vitality neverthe- 
less. Spore-formation was not observed. 
This microbe is fatal to squirrels, as well as to the marmot and mice. 
The results of the field experiments are promised shortly. 
Bacillus piscicidus agilis. J — Mdme. Siebe-Schoumoff isolated from 
the bodies of dead and dying fish a short mobile rodlet which in young 
cultures was short and thick (1-1*5 /x X 0*5-0 *8 /x ) and in old long 
and thin (2-3 * 5 /x X 0 * 3-0 * 5 /x). Bacillus piscicidus agilis is mobile,, 
a potential anaerobe, liquefies gelatin, grows on all media, and is killed 
off at a temperature of 60°-70°. This bacillus is pathogenic both after 
subcutaneous and gastric infection to warm- and cold-blooded animals. 
The extract from infected fish, boiled for half an hour, when injected 
into guinea-pigs, was fatal to half the number, while cultivations from the 
fluid were negative. 
Towards the end of 1893, the authoress had the opportunity of 
examining the stools of six persons suffering from fish poisoning with 
cholera-like symptoms. In two cases which succumbed B. piscicidus 
agilis as well as comma bacilli were found. 
Micrococcus Sornthalii.§ — Prof. L. Adametz describes a coccus 
which he isolated from milk. The isodiametric cells measure 0 * 0007 
mm. These occur singly, in pairs or short chains. In old cultures 
large cells resembling yeast-cells, oval in shape and having 2-3 times 
* Ann. Inst. Pasteur, ix. (1895) pp. 256-64 (3 figs.). 
+ Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. Parasitenk., l te Abt., xvii. (1895) pp. 742-56. 
+ C.R. Soe. Med. Russes, Dec. 1894. See Ann. de Microgr., vii. (1895) pp. 231-2. 
§ Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. Parasitenk., 2 to Abt., i. (1895) pp. 465-73 (1 pi.). 
