240 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
cens fuscus sp. n. ; violaceus ; nubilus ; iridescens; prodigiosus ; giganticus 
sp. n. ; coli communis. 
Actinomycotic Form of the Tubercle Bacillus.* — Herr P. L. Fried- 
rich injected rabbits with 0 ■ 2-6 * 5 ccm. of a suspension of young tubercle 
culture in salt solution. The injection was made into the left ventricle. 
The animals died in 24 to 86 days with tuberculous deposits in kidneys, 
iris, lungs, and brain. By special methods the author succeeded in 
staining preparations from kidneys, lungs, and iris which showed appear- 
ances very similar to those characteristic of actinomycosis. Paraffin sec- 
tions were first treated for one minute with Bohmer’s hsematoxylin, washed 
in water, and then with Victoria blue. They were next heated over a 
flame until vapour arose, and afterwards decolorised with hydrochloric 
acid alcohol. After having been washed with water they were treated 
for one minute with 4 per cent, aqueous solution of eosin, and then 
washed again. Next they were transferred to alkaline metliylen-blue for 
30 seconds ; then washed with alcohol until no more eosin was given 
up, and after this immersed for 5 minutes in water slightly acidulated 
with acetic acid. They were then immersed successively in water, 
alcohol, xylol, and balsam. The tubercle bacilli are deep blue, the 
clubs red, and the rest of the tissue blue-violet. 
The formula for the Victoria blue solution is, — Alcohol 90 per cent. 
30 ccm., anilin 1 ccm., H 2 0 70 com., saturated alcoholic solution of 
Victoria blue 10 ccm. 
For the hydrochloric acid alcohol, — Alcohol 70 per cent. 70 ccm., 
HoO 30 ccm., HC1 1 ccm. 
For the alkaline methylen-blue solution, — Saturated solution of 
lithium carbonate 5 ccm., II 2 0 50 ccm., alcohol 90 per cent. 20 ccm., 
saturated alcoholic solution of methylen-blue 2 * 5 ccm. 
(2) Preparing Objects. 
Detection of Protoplasmic Threads in Cell-Walls.f — The following 
are the principal points in the method of preparing, staining, and mount- 
ing sections of vegetable tissue employed by Mr. W. Gardiner to obtain 
the results described on p. 206. 
The method depends upon the use of two principal reagents, viz. 
the osmic-acid-uranium-nitrate mixture of Kolossow as a fixative, and 
safranin as a dye. Thymol water is used as a preservative. In material 
such as that of young endosperms (e.g. Tamus communis ), no swelling is 
required, and the tissue, cut into small pieces, may be both killed and 
fixed at one and the same time by Kolossow’s reagent, and then preserved 
in thymol water. Where only slight swelling is necessary, treatment 
with water may precede that of Kolossow’s reagent. In certain classes 
of tissue, where the walls are swollen with comparative ease — such as 
the ordinary vegetative tissue of Phaseolus vulgaris , Tamus communis , 
Nerium Oleander , Salisburia adiantifolia , Ac. — small pieces are killed 
and swollen in an aqueous solution of picric acid, and then fixed in 
Kolossow’s reagent. Finally, where the tissues are more resistant— e. g. 
in Pobinia Pseudacacia , Prunus Laurocerasus, Aucuba japonica — treat- 
* Deutscli. Med. Wochenschr., 1S97, p. 653. See Zeitschr. f. wiss. Mikr., xiv. 
(1897) pp. 413-5. t Proc. Roy. Soc., lxii. (1897) pp. 102-4. 
