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SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
and 1 fx broad. The rodlets are sometimes motile, and are so arranged 
as to impart the notion of being ramified. Wine, previously passed 
through a Chamberland’s filter and examined six months after inocula- 
tion with this bacillus, was found to be pronouncedly bitter. The wine 
had become turbid ; its colouring matter had been partly precipitated, 
the deposit being found to contain the characteristic filaments. The 
alcoholic strength of the wine was undiminislied, while the glycerin 
and glucose were notably less. The acidity was greatly increased. 
The infected wine had been kept at a temperature of 20°, though 
artificial cultures were found to do better at 30°. In wine from which 
the alcohol had been removed by distillation, the disease is quickly 
effected. 
Smegma Bacillus. — Herr II. Laser * succeeded in obtaining, from 
hard chancres and condylomata lata, colonies of Smegma bacilli on blood- 
agar. The colonies resembled those of Streptococcus and diphtheria, and 
when transferred to blood-serum and glycerin-agar they grew up thereon 
like dew-drops. Ho growth occurred in gelatin thrust cultures. On 
agar, in pepton-water, in bouillon, and on potato, there was scanty or no 
development, but on grape-sugar bouillon the growth was moderate. 
The bacilli were stainable with fuchsin and methylen-blue, as well as by 
Oram’s method. Often rodlets were found which were stained only at 
the ends, thus giving the appearance of cocci. The results from subcu- 
taneous and intraperitoneal injection of mice and guinea-pigs were 
negative. 
Herr Czaplewski j* found small colonies of acid-resisting rodlets in 
some gonococcus cultures on nutrose-serum-agar. Pure cultivations 
were easily obtained. On Loeffler’s serum at 37° yellowish-grey colonies 
appeared by the second day, and soon became confluent, forming a pretty 
thick overlay. On glvcerin-agar the growth was somewhat similar. 
The growth on potato was scanty, and of a honey-yellow colour. The 
rodlets are stainable with the basic anilin dyes, and also by Gram’s 
method ; are very resistant to decoloration with 5 per cent, sulphuric acid, 
30 per cent, nitric-acid-alcohol, sulphuric-acid-alcohol, and even by 
hydrochloric-acid-alcohol. The shape of the bacilli is very variable ; on 
nutrose-serum and potato are found the longest forms ; on gelatin the 
rodlets are frequently knobbed or swollen at one end, or very thick. On 
Loeffler’s the rodlets are short. The bacillus is presumed to be identical 
with that described by Laser. 
Hew Bacillus from a case of Leprosy.J — Hr. Czaplewski cultivated, 
from the nasal secretion of a leper, a bacillus belonging to the tubercle 
bacillus group, and remarkable from being resistant to the action of acids 
and alcohol. The medium used was glycerinised serum, but cultures 
were also made with human ascitic fluid on agar, gelatin, and in bouillon. 
The bacillus stained well with anilin pigments, and also by Gram’s 
method. The resistance to the action of alcohol and of mineral acids, 
though pronounced, is not so strong as that of the tubercle bacillus. In 
shape the organism is a straight or slightly bent rodlet, the length 
and thickness varying a little with the culture medium. The ends may 
* Miincken. Med. Wochenschr., 1897, No. 43. 
t Ibid. See Beih. Bot. Centralbl., 1S98, pp. 389-90. 
t Centralbl. Bakt. u. Par., l te Abt., xxiii. (1898) pp. 97-107, 189-94 (2 pis.). 
