518 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
part of his task. In this the idea was to ascertain the bactericidal 
condition of the blood at different stages of infection, and especially at 
the moment when from being local the infection was becoming general. 
For this purpose local injections, e. g. into the pleural sac and into sub- 
cutaneous tissue, were made with bacillus of malignant oedema, Bacillus 
aerogenes , and St. pyogenes aureus. It was found that from being local 
the infection soon became general, and that under these circumstances 
the bactericidal influence was either abolished or much diminished. 
Secondly, that the degree of the diminution was in direct proportion to 
the intensity of the infection ; and thirdly, that the appearance of living 
organisms in the blood appears to coincide with a diminution in the 
bactericidal influence. 
Flies and the Transmission of Cholera.*— During the epidemic at 
Hamburg, Dr. N. Simmonds examined flies captured in the post-mortem 
room at the time the bodies were open. In these numerous comma- 
bacilli could be demonstrated. When the autopsies were over and the 
room washed up, the cholera bacilli were not found. In order to ascer- 
tain how long the cholera germ could be retained in flying insects, further 
experiments were carried on. It was found that they disappear in an 
hour and a half, a time sufficiently long to render their transmission to 
a considerable distance possible. 
Sphaerotilus roseus, a new red aquatic Schizomycete.f — Prof. W. 
Zopf found in the outfall of a sugar-refinery a new red Schizomycete 
belonging to the CladotrichesB, to which he has given the name Sphserotilus 
roseus, constantly associated with two other fungi. It forms long delicate 
filaments which coalesce into mucous strings, and these run into longer 
or smaller flakes which he found clinging to dead vegetable and animal 
matter. The filaments branch and exhibit a delicate sheath. They are 
composed of elongated cells of small diameter (0*7-1 /x), which ap- 
parently possess the power of swarming, and like other species of Clado - 
thrix may eventually split up into small segments. The red pigment is 
located in the cell contents. It can be extracted with alcohol, but strips 
of paper soaked with the red solution lose their colour on exposure to 
the daylight. The red constituent is soluble in ether, chloroform, 
petroleum-ether, benzol, &c., and the author thinks that he has isolated 
it by saponifying the alcoholic solution and treating it with petroleum- 
ether (a yellow non-crystallizing material). With sulphuric acid the 
colour becomes blue, and the spectrum of the solution exhibits two bands. 
Saccharobacillus Pastorianus4 — Herr H. van Laer has studied the 
micro-organism, first described by Pasteur in his £ Etudes sur la Biere,’ 
called Saccharobacillus Pastorianus. Its specific action is the turning of 
beer, which becomes mothery and acquires a disagreeable odour and taste. 
The organism did not get on well when cultivated on meat-water- 
gelatin, and very poorly on wort-gelatin, though if a little alcohol were 
added after liquefaction at 30° it did better, and similar results were 
* Deutsch. Med. Wochenschr., 1892, No. 41. See Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. 
Parasitenk., xiii. (1893) pp. 237-8. Cf. this Journal, ante, p. 376. 
t Beitr. z. Morph, u. Phys. niederer Organismen (Zopf), Heft ii. (1892) pp. 32-5. 
j Zeitschr. f. gesammte Brauwesen, xv. (1892) pp. 340 et seq. See Bot. Centralbl., 
lii. (1892) pp. 330-1. 
