520 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
the most important deduction is that the chemotactic substances in 
cultivations are not identical with the toxines. 
Structure and Spore-formation of Green Tadpole Bacilli.* — Dr. J. 
Frenzel reports on a bacillus which he observed in the end-gut of 
larvoe of Anura, especially if these were in bad condition ; he then describes 
their morphological characters, and discusses the central body which in 
this large bacterium offers favourable opportunity for satisfactory study. 
The view maintained by Butschli that the central body is to be 
regarded as the nucleus is confirmed. Spore-formation, which shows 
many peculiarities, is thoroughly described. The spores arise endo- 
genously, as nucleoid forms in the central body ; amitotic division is 
the usual course ; but it is not unfrequent to find two spores without 
observing a division into two cells. The finer structural relations of 
the plasma and of the membrane are also discussed, and a peculiar fila- 
mentous body is described ; this is found in bacilli containing spores, but 
at the opposite extremity ; its signification is quite unknown. 
Variability of Cholera Bacilli-t — Prof. Finkelnburg compared 
cholera vibrios obtained from different sources, — Paris and Hamburg 
epidemics and laboratory cultivations which originally were derived 
from India and from the outbreak at Genoa in 1884, for the pur- 
pose of ascertaining if there were any differences in the rapidity of 
their growth on gelatin plates: at what time liquefaction occurred 
in puncture cultivations ; what influence low temperatures had on 
their growth and viability ; whether lactose were fermented, milk 
coagulated, and cholera red formed ; how far they were dependent 
on the free access of oxygen; their action on red corpuscles, and the 
slight differences of shape. Only slight differences were found between 
the Parisian and Hamburg bacilli as regards rapidity of growth, while 
both were more resistant to lower temperatures and to the absence of 
oxygen than laboratory vibrios. They possessed, besides, greater power 
of inducing acid fermentation of lactose ; they were more poisonous to 
red corpuscles, and showed a greater tendency to form spirilla than the 
older species, which were also thinner and less prone to central 
bulgings. 
Bacteriology of Swine-plague- { — The bacteriological researches of 
Dr. B. Bang on swine-plague in Denmark date back to 1887, when the 
author isolated a bacterium pathogenic to mice and rabbits and fatal to 
a sucking pig in four days. This micro-organism grew very well on the 
usual substrata, and the cultures showed their identity with the 
American hog-cholera. The disease was at first very virulent, no less 
than 600 to 700 dying in a few weeks in one district. Later the disease 
became chronic and less virulent, so that only a comparatively small 
number of pigs died, though profound and extensive diphtheritic 
processes were found in the intestine. Often too a characteristic 
pneumonia was met with, the hepatized portions being firm and white, 
a yellowish demarcation line showing that the inflammation had ended 
in necrosis. No definite result was at first obtained from the examina- 
* Zeitschr. f. Hygiene, xi. See Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. Parasitenk., xiii. 
(1893) p. 239. 
t Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. Parasitenk, xiii. (1893) pp. 113-7. 
j Maanedskrift for Dyrlaeger, iv. (1892-3) p. 194. See Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. 
u. Parasitenk., xiii. (1893) pp. 203-5. 
