106 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
material, placed in tubes containing bouillon, to the air. As the aerobic 
bacteria hud absorbed the oxygen, the organisms sought for were found 
in the sediment. This was inoculated in roll tubes from which the 
oxygen had been driven by hydrogen, and colonies of bacteria grew up 
on the thin gelatin layers. The species found were Bacillus cincinnatus , 
B. diffrangens, B. granulosus , B. reniformis , B. funicularis, B. jibrosus , 
B. penicillatus. With the exception of B. reniformis , all possessed 
flagella and liquefied gelatin. All formed spores. At the conclusion, 
the author gives an account of all the known anaerobes, of which there 
are altogether thirty-two. 
Decomposition of Saccharated Media by Vibrio Cholerae asiaticse.* 
— When Vibrio Cholerse asiaticse is cultivated in media containing grape- 
sugar, laevolactic acid is produced. Herr Gosio has further determined 
that the decomposition of the sugar and the formation of lactic acid go 
hand in hand. In sugar-pepton media, butyric and acetic acids are 
regularly found, and the production of these acids is favoured by incu- 
bation temperatures. In saccharated media, alcohol, aldehyd, and 
aceton are also formed, but carbonic acid is not produced. Media con- 
taining cane-sugar, maltose, milk-sugar, and starch were also examined. 
The amount of lactic acid produced was small compared to that formed 
when grape-sugar was present, and in the case of starch there was 
scarcely any at all. The quantity of volatile acids produced by the latter 
media was approximately the same, hence their formation would not 
appear to be dependent on the decomposition of the sugar. But between 
the latter and the production of indol there was some relation ; for the 
less sugar that was attacked, the greater was the formation of indol, and 
when the saccharine decomposition was extreme indol was absent. 
When non-albuminous media were used, the energy of the decomposi- 
tion was about as great as with peptonised media. In these experi- 
ments the relations of the quantity of the decomposed sugar to the 
quantity of the lactic acid formed on the one hand, to volatile acids 
on the other, were found to correspond approximately with the results 
obtained with the albuminous media. 
Typhoid-like Bacilli and the Diagnosis of the Bacillus Typho- 
sus. f — In the course of experiments made for the purpose of ascertain- 
ing how long pathogenic bacteria retain their vitality in the bodies of 
brried animals, Herr Losener lighted on bacilli perfectly indistinguish- 
able from the bacilli of enteric fever ; the bacteria were also found in 
water, faeces, and in fallow soil. The following criteria serve as a basis 
for diagnosis : — (1) the appearance of surface colonies on gelatin ; 
(2) the mobility of the rodlets, which are very variable in shape, on con- 
genial media ; (3) a large number of flagella ; (4) being decoloured 
by Gram’s method ; (5) non-formation of gas on saccharated media ; 
(6) growth in milk but without coagulation ; (7) growth in albuminous 
media without forming indol ; (8) formation of acid not exceeding 3 per 
cent, in whey ; (9) when grown on potato, behaves exactly as culture of 
* Arch. f. Hygiene, xxii. (1894) p. 1. See Bot. Centralbl., v. (1895), Beih., 
pp. 298-4. 
f Arb. ausd. Kaiserl. Gesundheitsamte, xi. (1895) p. 207. See Bot. Centralbl., 
v. (1895) Beih., pp. 294-7. 
