580 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
which exert an inhibitory influence on the growth of bacteria ; that there 
is some slight difference in this inhibiting action in different organs ; 
that there is no essential difference in the appearance of the growths on 
the various media ; that the organisms grown on the media used show no 
marked variation in morphology ; and that the inhibiting property is in- 
variably lost on heating the extracts. It was also found that there is a 
certain uniformity in the composition of organs in different animals, so 
far as the nutritive value to bacteria is concerned. 
The viscera used in the experiments were the liver of certain domes- 
tic animals and of man, the spleen of the sheep, dog, ox, and pig, and the 
adrenals of the ox, sheep, and pig. The juice of the organ was passed 
through a Pasteur-Chamberland filter, and one portion of the fluid 
poured into a test-tube containing an equal bulk of 2 per cent, agar 
melted and cooled down to 45° C. Another portion was made up as a 
bouillon-agar (1 per cent, pepton, 5 per cent. NaCl, 2 per cent, agar) 
by means of heat. The control tubes contained plain bouillon agar. 
The micro-organisms selected were B. coli , B. typhosus , B. anthracis , 
B. diphtherise , and B. pseudodiphtherise. 
Mineral Constituents of Tubercle Bacilli.* — Drs. E. A. de 
Schweinitz and M. Dorset analysed 1*453 grm. of ash obtained by in- 
cinerating tubercle bacilli. The results were as follows: — Na 2 0, 13*62 
per cent.; K 2 0, 6*35 per cent.; CaO, 12*64 per cent.; MgO, 11*55 
per cent. ; carbon and silica, 0 * 57 per cent. ; P 2 0 5 , 55 * 23 per cent. The 
high percentage of phosphoric acid and the absence of other acid radicals 
are very noticeable. 
New Chromogenic Bacillus, t — Herren F. W. J. Boekhout and 
J. J. Ott de Vries describe a chromogenic bacillus which they designate 
B. fuchsinus on account of the iridescent pigment. The bacillus w r as 
isolated from tap-water, and cultivated on potato. The growth, at first 
reddish, had in two days a bronze shimmer. The organism was cultivated 
on several kinds of nutrient media, the most suitable for the production 
of pigment being a sodium-tartrate-pepton-agar. In shape B. fuchsinus 
resembles B . prodigiosus ; it is from 1-1*5 p long and about half as broad. 
It is easily stained. 
Oxygen is necessary for the production of pigment, but the bacillus 
can vegetate in the absence of this gas. The optimum temperature lies 
between 22° and 25° C. The shape of the organism was found to vary 
with the medium ; for while ordinarily it is a short rodlet with rounded 
ends, yet, when cultivated in malt extract or malt-agar, it forms pretty 
long rodlets. Other slight variations were also noticed. When cultivated 
at 36° no pigment was formed, but when the temperature was lowered the 
colour reappeared. It does not produce gas, and imparts to the medium 
a strongly acid reaction. Besides the pigment and the acid, B. fuchsinus 
secretes a peptonisiDg ferment. The pigment is soluble in alcohol, 
chloroform, and carbon bisulphide, less so in ether, and with difficulty 
in water. 
Action of Cider on the Typhoid Bacillus.^ — Dr. E. Bod in, who has 
made experiments to test the duration of the vitality of the typhoid 
* Centralbl. Bakt. u. Par., l te Abt., xxiii. (1898) pp. 993-5. 
t Op. cit., 2 te Abt., xxiv. (1898) pp. 497-501. 
X Arm. Inst. Pasteur, xii. (1898) pp. 458-84. 
