ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
343 
discovered in “ Indian ink.” Under the Microscope the organisms pre- 
sented themselves as spherical or oblong forms, in the middle of which 
lay a bacillus about O’G /x broad and 4-8 fx long. Two or three 
individuals may occupy one capsule. The bacillus did not stain by 
Gram’s method, it was devoid of movement, and spore-formation was 
not observed. It was easily cultivated on the ordinary media at from 
20°-37°. Gelatin was not liquefied. The growth is white. The bacillus 
is a potential anaerobe. Milk is slowly coagulated. In some media a 
smell arises, on agar like yeast, in milk like cheese, on potato like 
trimethylamin and ammonia. The bacillus is extremely pathogenic to 
mice and guinea-pigs. 
A special characteristic of this microbe is that it never loses its 
capsule, and that the capsule is thicker and finer on some artificial 
media, such as glycerin-agar or beer-wort agar, than in the animal 
body. The bacillus has been found not only in liquid and solid Chinese, 
or rather “ Indian, ink,” but in samples of China tea. 
Tuberculosis and Pseudo-Tuberculosis.*' — MM. Bataillon and Terre 
recount some more examples of the polymorphism of the tubercle bacillus, f 
In a previous communication, the authors had described two types, A 
that of Koch, B a variety, adapted to low temperatures. Two secondary 
types, a and /3 derived from A, are now mentioned, and details of three 
series of experiments given. In two there is manifest tuberculosis, 
but there are no germs in the tuberculous products capable of being 
stained by the Koch-Ehrlich method. In the third series the results 
were much the same, except that the bacilli were motile. Thus human 
tuberculosis, after a short passage through the frog, when transferred to 
guinea-pigs, renders these animals tuberculous without the demonstrable 
presence of Koch’s bacillus, the form of the bacillus resembling that 
of pseudo-tuberculosis. In rabbits, the bacillus exists in the blood and 
viscera, but there is no tuberculous formation or deposit. A converse 
type, i.e. where rabbits become tuberculous and guinea-pigs do not, is 
next alluded to. Thus there are two types of pseudo-tuberculosis, 
originating in two distinct stages of the bacillary cycle. 
The inference drawn by the authors ?s very important. They are 
convinced that many cases of pseudo-tuberculosis are instances of real 
tuberculosis, the agent being one of the numerous forms of Koch’s 
bacillus. 
Bacillus of Bitter Wine.J — MM. J. Bordas, Joulin, and Rackowsld 
isolated from a sample of bitter, wine, by cultivation in strong yeast 
■water slightly alkalinised with potash and containing glucose, a bacillus 
which presented itself in the form of filaments of variable length. 
After a few days the filaments united into bundles made up of short 
rodlets. The colonies on gelatin were small, yellowish, and did not 
liquefy the medium. 
In Laurent’s medium, containing 10 per cent, pepton Collas, the 
bacillus grows rapidly ; in 24 hours the liquid is turbid, and in eight 
days is distinctly bitter, and at the same time there is gas formation. 
In this medium, the bacillus presents itself as short rodlets 4-5 fx long 
* Comptes Rendus, exxvi. (1898) pp. 538-41. 
t See this Journal, 1897, pp. 571 and 2. 
X Comptes Rendus, exxvi. (1898) pp. 59S-9. 
