390 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
acid) and agreeable (extractive matter) compounds. (2) Those which 
develope with difficulty in sterilized milk, and for which unaltered 
paracasein is a favourable nutrient medium. (3) Those which have no 
special effect on the nutrient material, and the presence or absence of 
which has, in conti adistinction to classes 1 and 2, no bearing on the 
ripening process. 
Pseudo-tuberculosis of Rodents.* — Herr Pfeiffer proceeded to ex- 
amine this question by inoculating two guinea-pigs with pieces from the 
lungs and lymphatic glands of a horse affected with glanders. In about 
eight days the animals died, and on examination their various organs 
were found to be infiltrated with nodules (pseudo-tubercles). From the 
spleen and liver cultivations were made, and in 18 to 20 hours colonies 
of plump bacilli developed. These, although in certain respects re- 
sembling the bacillirof glanders, were not identical with them. From 
scores of infection experiments the author found that this bacillus was 
only inoculable on rodents. The cultivated bacillus did not stain with 
Gram’s method and Bismarck-brown, only imperfectly with methyl or 
gentian-violet, somewhat better with fuchsin, but best of all with Loeffler’s 
methylen-blue solution. With the exception of potato, the bacillus grew 
on all the usual cultivation media, and at high and low temperatures. 
Spore-formation was not observed. The virulence of the organism 
was not affected by exposing it for hours to subnormal temperatures 
(—16° C.), but + 60° C. destroyed it in one hour. 
Present Position of the Theory of Immunity. | — In discussing the 
various views on immunity, Herr Ribbert divides them into two cate- 
gories according as they deal with absolute or relative immunity. 
Absolute immunity embraces all the theories which do not require any 
active exertion or co-operation on the part of the immune body. To 
this class belong the hypotheses which assert that the bacteria die from 
want of nutrition or from some germicidal property of the blood-plasma, 
a property which is effective from its alkalinity, the presence of C0 2 , 
or to coin a suitable word, its albuminism. According to this view 
immunity does not depend on a struggle ; but relative immunity, which 
forms the second category, is the result of a contest between the bacteria 
and the body-elements. This practically amounts to Metschnikoff’s 
theory of phagocytes. The author expresses his views somewhat as 
follows. Absolute immunity depends on the inability of bacteria to 
decompose the albuminoid products of the body in order to apply them 
for their own nutrition. This may be acquired by the body as the 
result of a single infection, by supposing that the cells thereby become 
habitualized to the bacteria, and transmit their acquired resistance to 
succeeding cell generations and the circulating albumen. Relative 
immunity depends on the imperfect or insufficient supply of nutrition to 
the bacteria in consequence of the greater or less resistance of the 
tissues and juices of the body. The vegetation of the micro-organisms 
causes an increased development of heat, and an augmented aceumula- 
* Leipzig, 1889, 6 microphotographs. See Zeitschr. f. WLs. Mikr., vii. (1890) 
pp. 379-80. 
t Deutech. Med. Wochensclir., 1890, No. 31. See Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. 
Parasitenk., viii. (1890) pp. 734-6. 
