ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
461 
spore membrane may remain unruptured, remaining as the investment 
of the young bacterium, or being dissolved ; (2) the spore membrane 
may rupture at the pole ; (3) or equatorially. The existence of a true 
nucleus in the spore and in the bacterium is held to be improbable, 
though the granules in the bacterial cell may represent a rudimentary 
nucleus ; but whether “ rudimentary nucleus” is meant to be taken in the 
light of homologue or analogue is left doubtful. There are interesting 
chapters on pleomorphism and on the biological characters of Bacteria. 
Micro-organisms of Lignite.* — M. B. Renault, who has examined 
specimens of lignite, has found therein abundant micrococci existing 
either in the decomposing wood or in the substance which binds the 
animal and vegetable organisms together. This primitive substance 
was at one time in a fluid condition, and it was probably produced by 
microbic action on the organisms. 
Lignite appears to have been formed in shallow marshy waters 
adapted to the life and development of numerous Infusoria. The great 
mass of lignite is composed of vegetable debris, often in an advanced 
stage of decomposition ; and it is upon this debris that the^microscopic 
fungi developed, and in it that their fructification and mycele are found. 
Microbiology as applied to Hygiene.t — At the Congress of 
Hygiene and Demography held at Madrid; Dr. Behring announced 
that, as the result of experimental work with the toxin and antitoxin 
of tuberculosis, he had isolated from the tubercle bacillus a substance a 
hundred times more powerful than Koch’s tuberculin, and had ob- 
tained, by passing the virus through the horse, an antitoxin which he 
believed to be an efficient cure for the disease. 
Dr. A. Calmette demonstrated the prophylactic effect on snake-bitten 
patients of the serum of the blood of horses subjected to small doses of 
the venom. A rabbit injected with the mixed venom of cobra naja and 
bothrops died in 20 minutes. Two rabbits were injected with the pro- 
tective serum, and in 10 minutes each received a dose of the mixture 
equal in amount to that which killed the first rabbit. No ill effects 
resulted. The serum is easily prepared, and retains its prophylactic 
properties for an indefinite period. 
M. Nocard described the method of cultivating the microbe of 
pleuropneumonia of cattle.J 
Dr. E. Yallin drew attention to the existence of saltpetre on the 
walls of dwelling houses, and its ill effects on the health of the dwellers 
therein. As the salt is produced by nitrifying organisms, germicides 
should be mixed with the mortar ; and to eliminate the nitrifying organ- 
isms from the walls, these should be inoculated with antinitrifying 
bacilli. 
Chatinella, a new Genus of Schizomycetes.§ — In the parenchyme 
of potatoes killed by Phytophthora , and in the leaves of tulips killed by 
Pseudocommis, M. E. Roze finds an organism which he regards as the 
type of a new genus of Schizomycetes, and which he names Chatinella 
* Comptes Rendus, cxxvi (1898) pp. 1828-31. Cf. this Journal, 1897, p. 326. 
f Nature, lviii. (1898) pp. 15-16. % Of. this Journal, infra , p. 463. 
§ Comptes Rendus, cxxvi. (1898) pp. 858-9. 
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