ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
463 
Microbe of Peripneumonia of Cattle.* * * § — MM. Nocard and Roux 
state that the virus of the contagious peripneumonia of the Bovidte may 
be easily cultivated in collodion or reed sacs inserted in the peritoneal 
cavity of rabbits. It may also be cultivated in Martin’s bouillon pepton, 
to which ox or rabbit serum has been added in the proportion of 1 part 
of serum to 20 parts of bouillon. All other kinds of artificial media 
failed. 
The virus is a microbe of exceeding smallness, smaller indeed than 
any known microbe. Its shape could not be properly made out even by 
staining. 
After having remained in the peritoneal cavity for 15-20 days, the 
fluid in the collodion sacs was found to be slightly turbid, and devoid 
of cells and bacteria. Examined under a magnification of about 2000 
diameters, vast numbers of minute mobile highly refracting points were 
observable. 
Inoculation with the fluid from these infected sacs gave positive 
results. 
Bacteriology of Pertussis.f — Dr. H. Koplik, who has already made 
a communication on hooping cough, J gives some further details as to 
Bacillus Pertussis. From the sputum are fished out some of the greyish- 
white particles ; from these cultivations are made directly and without 
further manipulation, on obliquely set hydrocele fluid. Pure cultures 
are greyish-white or pearly. The bacillus was cultivated also on agar, 
blood-serum, and on pepton-bouillon. Its growth is anaerobic as well 
as aerobic. Stained with Loeffler’s blue, the organism has a finely punc- 
tate appearance ; it is 0 * 8-1 • 7 p, long and 0 • 3-0 • 4 /x broad. It is not 
decolorised by Gram’s method. 
On old cultures involution forms are frequent. In the hanging drop 
movements are visible, but these are probably Brownian in character. 
The bacilli are most abundant in the convulsive stage ; and if the 
case be uncomplicated with bronchitis or pneumonia, pure cultures are 
easily obtained. 
Bacteriology of Sour Corn.§ — In the United States the canning of 
maize is an important industry, and any neglect or defect in the treat- 
ment of the grain may result in considerable loss, owing to the contents 
of the tins turning sour. The souring is hastened by a high tempera- 
ture, and retarded by a low one ; thus samples of one and the same 
packing if sent to a cold climate might keep, and if sent to a sunny land 
might soon turn sour. Messrs. S. C. Prescott and W. L. Underwood, 
in an interesting paper dealing with the historical, commercial, and bac- 
teriological aspects of the subject, state that the souring of tinned maize 
is directly due to the action of microbes, and they describe twelve species 
of bacteria which they have isolated from cases of sour corn. Four of 
these were also discovered in the ears of green corn — a fact which makes 
it probable that the souring depends principally on defective sterilisa- 
tion. Plates illustrating the appearance of cultures of two of the 
* Ann. Inst. Pasteur, xii. (1898) pp. 240-62. 
t Johns Hopkins Hosp. Bull., ix. (1898) pp. 79-83 (2 figs.). 
X Cf. this Journal, 1897, p. 576. 
§ Technology Quarterly, xi. (1898) pp. 6-30 (6 pis.). 
