224 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
is a rodlet 14-16 /x long and 2-5 /x broad, arranged in pairs or chains, 
the individuals being somewhat bent or spirillar. Chemical analysis 
showed the presence of phosphate of lime. 
Cheese-Curd Inflation. — Prof. H. L. Bolley and Mr. C. M. Hall * * * § 
adduce evidence to show that when cheese-curd inflation is the work, as 
it mostly is, of gas-forming organisms, these organisms arc not located 
in the udders, either in the fore oi hind milk. The normal udder, how- 
ever, does possess a considerable bacterial flora, but no gas-engendering 
organisms. It would appear, therefore, that, by taking suitable pre- 
cautions, cheese-curd inflation may be almost entirely prevented. The 
value of these precautions is easily perceived from the authors’ experi- 
ments, one of which may be quoted as an example. Strippings from a 
shorthorn cow were taken with the following precautions. The flank, 
belly, and udder were washed and dried with moist cloth, and the hands 
of the milker treated in a similar manner. The milk was stripped 
directly into a sterile bottle. .Results : a very few large “ pinholes,” i.e. 
inflation cavities in a solid non-floating curd, and no gas formation in 
the fermentation tube after 48 hours. 
In a subsequent communication f Prof. Bolley deals with the con- 
stancy of bacterial species in normal fore-milk ; the general conclusions 
being that, while there is no clear proof that the same species are common 
to different animals, yet the constancy of the appearance of certain types, 
when once present, becomes clearly evident. 
Bacteria of Cheese Ripening4 — The recent investigations on cheese 
ripening made by Dr. E. von Freudenreich, led him to suspect that, after 
all, anaerobes may very possibly participate in the process ; and in support 
of this view he adduces two facts. By making emulsions of various 
cheeses and inoculating milk therewith, absolutely anaerobic bacilli 
were eventually obtained. These microbes apparently form butyric acid. 
From a similar source was isolated a bacillus which formed spores, and 
in this stage was a Clostridium form. This microbe, called Clostridium 
feetidum ladis, is an obligatory anaerobe and, as its name implies, 
imparts a disagreeable odour to milk. This organism will not grow on 
gelatin, but does so, though fr lowly, on sugar-agar. Puncture cultiva- 
tions in sugar-agar resemble an inverted pine-tree, recalling cultures of 
tetanus and of swine-erysipelas. The agar-cultures have a cheesy odour. 
Though without the power of liquefying gelatin, it apparently entirely 
dissolves the casein of milk, this medium turning yellow, and only a 
slight sediment remaining. 
Hence it seems possible that the organisms which bring about the 
ripening of cheese need not be sought among the liquefying bacteria. 
Microbes of the Plague.§ — Dr. T. Aoyama found in the lymphatic 
glands (bubos) of persons dead of plague a bacillus identical with that 
described by Kitasato. It can be stained by alkaline methylen-blue, but 
not by Gram’s method. In the blood was found another bacillus resem- 
* Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. Paraaitenk., 2 te Abt., i. (1895) pp. 788-95 (8 figs.). 
f Tom. cit., pp. 795-9. 
J Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. Parasitenk., 2 te Abt., i. (1S95) pp. 854-7. Cf. this 
Journal, 1895, p. 668. 
§ Mittheil. a. d. Med. Facult'at d. Kaiserl.- Japan. Univ. Tokio, iii. (1895) 
pp. 115-238 (6 pis.). 
