ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 8? 
1/2-1 /x long, and 1/4-1/2 p broad. It is extremely mobile, and is easily 
stained with phenol-fuclisiu and by Gram’s method. 
Mice inoculated with bouillon cultivations die in 30-48 hours after 
subcutaneous injection, and 18-24 after intra-peritoneal injection. Blood 
taken from these infected mice kills fresh mice in 36 hours. After 6 
days the animals no longer die, although they sicken for a time. At 
this period the cultivations no longer show bacilli in chains, but in 
discoid masses, and apparently surrounded by a capsule. Very similar 
results were obtained from infecting rabbits. By cultivation in artificial 
media this microbe soon lost its virulence. It was not found in the 
water in which the frogs were kept. 
Streptococcus longus.* — Dr. Behring finds that pathogenic Strepto- 
cocci are divisible into two species : — A. Streptococcus brevis ; B. Strepto- 
coccus longus. The latter may be further differentiated into several 
sub-species, e. g. — 1. Cocci which cloud bouillon ; 2. Cocci which do 
not cloud bouillon. Group 2 is, again, subdivisible into three varieties : 
— a. Cocci which form a soft mucoid sediment ; b. Cocci which form 
a scum or crumbling sediment ; c . Cocci which “ ball ” together, and 
tend to stick to the sides of the tube. 
The most important point about these differences seems to be that 
the more the cultivations show this balling the more virulent they are, 
especially for white mice ; and the author’s researches were principally 
directed to discovering if the variations of these pathogenic cocci were 
mere sports of the same species, or whether the cocci found in different 
diseases were specifically constant. 
The experiments, which were made in collaboration with other 
observers, tended to show that there was no specific difference, the par- 
ticular form of disease being due to the condition of the natural medium 
(the patient). The observations, however, resulted in what the author 
considers a very important fact. It was found that an animal which had 
been rendered immune to the Streptococcus most virulent to it, has 
acquired immunity to all other Streptococci. 
Phagocytes and Muscular Phagocytosis.f — The tail of a tadpole 
has been sufficient to stir up a scientific strife, not only about the 
powers, but even touching the actuality of the phagocyte. The almost 
universal belief that the white corpuscles of the blood exercised phago- 
cytic functions has been rudely shaken. It had become generally 
understood that when a phagocyte was spoken of, a wandering meso- 
dermic cell, an amoeboid corpuscle of the lymph or of the blood, was 
almost always meant, although some fixed cells (of doubtful origin) 
possessed the power of catching, incorporating, and assimilating other 
cells. It would now appear that this is a mistake. The inventor of 
phagocytosis disdains any such notion. It is wrong to mix up a phago- 
cyte and a leucocyte. “ II ne m’est jamais arrive do les identifier avec 
des leucocytes,” says M. E. Metschnikoff. For the general belief there 
is much excuse, considering there are explicit statements to the effect 
that phagocyte and leucocyte are synonymous expressions. 
* Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. Parasitenk., xii. (1892) pp. 192-6. 
f Annal. Inst. Pasteur, vi. 1892. See Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. Parasitenk., xi. 
(1892) pp. 582-4 ; xii. (1892) pp. 81-7. 
