678 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
juice has any action on the toxalbumin, that it is not destroyed hy 
oxygen nor affected by the action of light. Though the alkaloidal 
nature of the toxin is negatived, the authors do not definitely class it 
among the toxalbumins, to which it is allied by its insolubility in alcohol, 
and its colloidal nature on account of its resistance to heat and the 
digestive juices. 
Bacillus pluviatilis.* — Dr. A. B. Griffiths describes under this name 
a microbe discovered in rain water which had been stored in an open 
barrel during a mild winter. When cultivated on gelatin plates it 
forms yellow colonies 2-10 mm. in diameter. It liquefies gelatin, and 
developes rapidly, when grown on a piece of potato, colouring it orange, 
and transforming the starch into glucose. It is a true bacillus, and is 
not formed from spores ; it is 2-4 fx long, 0 • 6-0 * 8 /x broad, and is 
stained by anil in colours. It can live only in water containing organic 
matter ; the cultures may be dried, but are killed by heating to 100° C. 
for 15 minutes. It does not appear to be pathogenic. 
Bacillus typhosus and Bacillus coli communis.— MM. A. Rodet and 
G. Roux j* were the first to point out that the bacillus of enteric fever may, 
under certain circumstances, produce suppuration, and that Bacterium, 
eoli plays a part in affections of the bile ducts. They further showed 
that, while Bacillus typhosus is found in the splenic blood of enteric 
fever cases, B. coli exists in the intestine of these patients, almost in 
pure cultivation. From examinations of water suspected of typhoid, 
micro-organisms which could be positively identified with B. entericus 
were never found, while B. coli was often present. The position of the 
authors is that the typhoid bacillus is merely a variety of Bact. coli , and 
they now give the result of their experiments on animals. In the 
anatomical lesions found in rabbits and guinea-pigs there was a striking 
resemblance, although those produced by Bact. coli were perhaps more 
intense. The temperature changes resulting from intra-peritoneal and 
intravenous injection of both organisms point to the conclusion that 
these organisms cannot be easily distinguished from the standpoint of 
experimental infection. 
MM. Chantemesse and Widal f find that the typhoid fever bacillus 
cannot set up an alcoholic or a lactic acid fermentation in nutritive 
media. Coagulation of milk does not occur even if a typhoid milk 
cultivation be kept longer than two months. The observations are a 
direct contradiction of the statements of Dubief, who found that the 
fermentative action of typhoid bacillus and of the common bacterium of 
the large intestine was equally great, that the quantitative difference 
between the formed products of fermentation was very slight, and 
that Bacillus typhosus was able to coagulate milk even after a long 
period. The objections raised by Rodet and Roux are also controverted. 
The authors left B. coli for two months in an incubator until it was 
almost dried up, yet the colon bacterium had lost none of its characteris- 
* Bull. Soc. Cliim., vii. pp. 332-4. See Journ. Chem. Soc., 1893, Abstr. p. 83. 
f Arch. Med. Exp. et d’Anat. Pathol., iv. No. 3. See Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. 
Parasitenk., xiii. (1893) pp. 139-40. Cf. this Journal, ante , p. 86. 
X La Semaine Med., 1891, No. 45, p. 451. See Centralbl. f, Bakteriol. u. 
Parasitenk., xii. (1892) pp. 730-1. 
