338 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
amount of pepton. It follows from these observations that the pro 
duction of indol by bacteria is more common than is usually supposed. 
Only one bacterium, Proteus vulgaris , was found to produce mer- 
captan. 
Experimental Production of Amyloid.* — Dr. Davidsohn . has pro- 
duced in animals, by subcutaneous injection of living bouillon-cultures 
of Staphylococcus pyogenes aureus, a substance which, if not identical 
with the amyloid deposit found in the human subject, belongs to the 
same class of bodies. The animals were injected at suitable intervals 
with doses of the culture increased from 0 * 3 to 25 ccm. In half the 
cases the amyloid change was found. Babbits, mice, and fowls gave 
positive results, guinea-pigs and cats always negative. 
Putrefactive Bacteria in Fruit and Vegetables, j - — Herr P. Gordan, 
from an investigation of the causes and conditions of putrefaction in 
fruit and vegetables, found that in the decomposition of plants there was 
no evidence of the production of sulphuretted hydrogen. In vegetable 
decomposition the same bacteria were constantly appearing, the most 
frequent being B. coli Esclierich. In rotting apples B. fluorescens 
liquefaciens was found, on potato B. liquefaciens , and on red cabbage 
B. flavofuscus liquefaciens. This last, a new species, is merely an 
accompaniment of the putrefaction set up by the other three, and has 
not the power by itself to initiate decomposition. 
Gummosis of Beetroot.f — Herr W. Busse endeavoured to isolate 
the exciting cause of the gumminess of beetroot, a disease which is first 
seen as a browning or blackening of the vascular bundles. The paren- 
chyma cells then become soft and degenerate, and at the same time is 
produced a dark brown slime which sets to a sort of gum. Two bacilli 
were isolated, bacillus a and /3. The colonies of a were finely granular 
and radiately striated, and the organism was capable of exciting a lively 
fermentation. Unfortunately the cultures were lost before inoculation 
experiments could be tried. 
Bacillus (3, isolated from different material, was found to possess 
similar morphological characters and physiological functions ; the author 
therefore concluded that they were one and the same species, and called 
it Bacillus Betse. Healthy beets inoculated with B. Betse were found 
to contain internally evidences of gummosis, though externally there 
was no difference between the infected and healthy plants. Bacterio- 
logical examination showed the presence of B. Betse. 
Production of Mucinoid Substance by Bacteria. § — MM. A. Charrin 
and A. Desgrez find that Bacillus pyocyaneus produces a substance having 
the chemical reactions characteristic of mucinoid compounds. Injected 
into the animal body it gives rise to the phenomena of pyocyanic intoxica- 
tion, emaciation, albuminuria, enteritis, and intramuscular haemorrhages. 
The authors suggest, in view of their results, that bacteria play an 
* Virchow’s Arch., cl. (1897) pt. 1. See Centralbl. Bakt. u. Par., l te Abt., xxiii. 
(1898) p. 426. 
t Inaug.-Diss. Erlangen, Leipzig, 1897, 18 pp. See Beik. Bot. Centralbl., 1898, 
p. 322. 
X Zeltschr. f. Pflanzenkr., 1897, pp. 65-149. See Bot. Centralbl., lxxiii. (1898) 
p. 153. § Comptes Bendus, exxvi. (1898) pp. 596-7. 
