ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
517 
should bo used hot. Certainly where it is a question of destroying 
spores, cold fluids should be replaced by hot, and indeed by boiling hot 
ones. Hot solutions are not only safer and shorter in their action, but 
are more economical, as so much of the disinfectant is not required. 
For the disinfection of clothes the author states that the best pro- 
cedure is to place the linen, &c., for six hours in a 1 per cent, of lysol, 
then boil for half an hour, and afterwards wash in the ordinary way. 
Lysol was found to be the best and safest disinfectant. 
Escape of Bacteria with the Secretions.* — The experiments made 
by Prof. C. S. Sherrington as to the method of escape of bacteria from 
the circulation were made on mice, rabbits, and guinea-pigs which were 
inoculated with pure cultivations of various micro-organisms, e. g. 
B. antliracis , B. mallei , B. tuberculosis , B. cuniculicida, Sp. cholerse asiaticse , 
St. pyogenes aureus , and others, injected intravenously or subcutaneously. 
The urine, bile, and sometimes aqueous humour were afterwards examined. 
Taken in the aggregate the experiment showed that bacteria were some- 
times present in the secretions and sometimes absent ; that the presence 
in the secretions was to be associated with a more or less damaged 
condition of the secreting membranes, for these when healthy appear to 
be impassable to bacteria. 
These results seem to hold true more especially for pathogenic 
organisms, as these invariably appear in the secretion after a time, and 
their appearance is usually, though not invariably, accompanied by an 
escape of blood. Even if no actual blood can be detected these secreta 
may contain proteid when bacteria are present. 
The fact that animal membranes are permeable to the non-motile as 
well as to motile bacteria rather suggests that their outward passage is a 
passive transference than an active migration. 
Bactericidal Power of the Blood.j — The contribution of Dr. A. 
Bastin to the knowledge of the bactericidal power of the blood is 
essentially on the lines previously traversed by Nissen, who examined 
the bactericidal influence from intravenous injections of microbic emul- 
sions. Iu all his experiments the author used St. pyogenes aureus , and 
dogs were the animals experimented with. Though the method of the 
first part was the method of Nissen the results were diametrically 
opposite. The author found that after the intravenous injection of con- 
siderable quantities of microbic emulsion, the bactericidal influence was 
abolished or at any rate considerably diminished, and that this effect was 
due to the action of the toxins. The difference between the results of 
the two observers is possibly due to the fact that Nissen supposed the 
toxin to be alkaloid in nature and therefore soluble in water, whereas 
the author assumes the toxin to be albuminous. The natural inference 
that there is some relation between the dose injected and the diminution 
in the bactericidal power was corroborated by the experiments, and these 
also showed that the abolition and restoration of the functions were alike 
very rapid. 
When the bactericidal action was abolished for one microbe it was 
abolished for all others. After this the author enters upon the second 
* Journ. Pathol, and Bacterid. , iii. (1893) pp. 258-78. 
+ La Cellule, viii. (1892) pp. 383-417. Cf. this Journal, ante , p. 372. 
