ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
241 
fluid being of importance to tlie result. Fluids containing glucose with 
neutral or slightly alkaline reaction are decomposed by Bacillus viscosus 
sacchari. This is 1 /x thick, 2 • 5 to 4 /x long, motionless, forming filaments, 
liquefying gelatin, and being aerobic. Acid glucose solutions become 
mucous from the action of B. viscosus vini. This bacillus is 2-6 p long, 
0*6-0 *8 fi thick, is anaerobic, and grows only in acid solutions. Solu- 
tions containing milk-sugar become mucous from the action of a coccus 
1 jx in diameter. The mucus is a carbohydrate having the formula 
C 6 Hi 0 O 5 , and is apparently derived from the external membrane. 
Bacteria in Water.* — Dr. W. Migula, who has examined 400 
different kinds of water taken from Silesia and Baden during the years 
1888 and 1889, lays it down as an axiom that the harmfulness of water 
depends rather on its impregnation with different kinds of bacteria than 
upon the number of colonies. Hence a bacteriological examination of 
drinking water should be directed towards enumerating the different 
kinds of micro-organisms, instead of merely counting up the absolute 
number of colonies present in a cubic centimetre of water. In his 
article he gives five different tables, the results of which maybe summed 
up as follows : — 
(1) The results obtained from counting the colonies of bacteria in 
1 ccm. of water are no criterion of its value as a drinking water. 
(2) Putrefaction bacteria are almost completely absent from drinking 
water. (3) Putrefaction bacteria are most frequent when water contains 
1000-10,000 germs to 1 ccm., but are still present when it contains less 
than 50 germs, but if there be more than 10,000 germs they are not so 
numerous. (4) Putrefaction bacteria attain their greatest frequency 
when the number of different species present in water is greatest, (o) The 
relation between the number of kinds and the number of colonies is 
very indefinite. 
Bacteria of Chemnitz Potable Water. f— Herr O. E. K. Zimmer- 
mann describes the following new species found in the Chemnitz water 
supply : — Bacillus fluorescens aureus , B. fluorescens tenuis , B. fluorescens 
albus , B. fluorescens longus, B. rubefaciens, B. implexus , B. punctatus , B. 
vermiculosus, B. constrictus , B.fulvus, B, miniaceus , B. devorans, B. gracilis , 
B. helvolus, B. plicatus , B. guttatus , B. radiatus, B ochraceus, B. subflavus , 
Micrococcus rosettaceus , M. cremoides , M. carneus , M. sulphur eus, M. con- 
centricus. Taken all together, 40 species of bacteria are enumerated, 
and their specific differences described. 
Chemical Products of Growth of Bacillus anthracis.J — Dr. S. Martin 
grew bacilli in a solution of pure alkali-albumin and of mineral salts of 
the composition of the salts of the serum. The anthrax bacillus, in 
digesting the alkali-albumin, forms proto-albumose, deutero-albumose, and 
an alkaloid. The alkalinity of the albumoses may explain their toxic 
properties ; the bacillus forms the alkaloid from the albumose, and it is 
possible that the living tissues have a similar action when the albumose 
is introduced into a living animal. 
* Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. Parasitenk., viii. (1890) pp. 353-61. 
f 11 Bericht d. Naturvviss. Gesell. zu Chemnitz, 1890. See Bot. Centralbl, xliii. 
(1890) p. 272. 
X Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond., xlviii. (1890) pp. 78-80. 
1891. 
R 
