ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
553 
peritoneal cavity. Toxic symptoms appear soon after the operation, the 
temperature soon falls, and the animal dies. 
Bacteriological Examination of Water for Cholera Bacilli.* — 
Prof. R. Koch finds that the following method is the most reliable for 
detecting cholera organisms in water. To 100 ccm. of the water to be 
examined, 1 per cent, of pepton and 1 per cent, of sodium chloride are 
added, the mixture being kept at 37°. At the end of 10, 15, or 20 hours a 
number of pepton tubes and agar plates are inoculated with this culture. 
The microscopical examination is so far of unimportance as all sorts of 
comma-shaped organisms are always to be found in water, but the 
colonies on the agar plate should be carefully examined under the Micro- 
scope in order to see if they consist of comma organisms. If so they 
should be transferred to fresh culture media for the cholera red test and 
for experiments on animals. 
Cultivation of Leprosy Bacillus. + — Dr. A. Ducrey made numerous 
cultivations from leprous persons and succeeded in obtaining in grape- 
sugar-agar a growth which became evident to the naked eye six days 
after inoculation as a thin coating with indented edges. Cultivated in 
vacuo in bouillon the organism showed itself in 48 hours as a thin over- 
lay on the side of the tube. A culture one year old in grape-sugar- 
agar and kept at 20° would, when transferred to bouillon and cultivated 
in the absence of air, still develope freely. The cultivations consisted 
of bacilli, which when stained with anilin-water-fuchsin and after- 
wards treated with alcohol were quite like leprosy bacilli in tissues. 
They are thin, straight, or slightly bent rods with rounded ends, of 
various lengths, but on the average somewhat shorter than leprosy 
bacilli. They are quite motionless. Many stain quite regularly, others 
show bright spots in their interior. Very short forms are also present 
and the chain or rosary form is not infrequent. They also stain well 
with gentian-violet methyl-violet, methylen-blue, by Gram’s and the 
Koch-Ehrlich methods, but not by those of Ziehi-Neelsen, Gabbet, and 
Baumgarten. Inoculations on rabbits entirely failed. 
The author identified his in vacuo cultivation with a cultivation 
obtained by Campana and de Amicis, and he finally succeeded in 
obtaining pure cultivations from his eight cases in simple bouillon 
cultures in vacuo. 
Cultivating Gonococcus.f — Dr. C. Gebhard cultivated gonococcus in 
blood obtained by catching this fluid, as it flowed from the vulva after 
expulsion of the placenta, in sterilized Erlenmeyer’s flasks. The flasks 
were placed for 24 or 48 hours in a refrigerator, and then 1-3 ccm. of 
the serum were removed to so many sterilized test-tubes. After this the 
tubes were sterilized by heating them on 7 consecutive days for 1^ hours 
at 58°. The absence of germs was then tested by incubating the tubes 
for several days at 37°. Those tubes which contained the clearest 
serum were then mixed with 2 parts of meat-pepton-agar and allowed 
* Zeitschr. f. Hygiene, xiv. 2. See Medical Week, 1893, pp. 265-9. 
f Giom. Ital. delle Mai. Vener. e della Pelle, xxvii. (1892) p. 76. See Centralbl. 
f. Bakteriol. u. Parasitenk., xiii. (1893) pp. 627-8. 
I Berl. Klin. Wuchenschr., xxix. No. 14. See Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. Para- 
sitenk., xiii. (1893) pp. 565-6. 
