ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
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bling that of fowl-cholera, and this could be stained by Gram’s method. 
Besides these bacilli, which the author holds to be different species, partly 
on account of their different shape and their staining reactions, Strepto- 
cocci, amenable to Gram’s method, and Micrococci, only faintly coloured 
by alkaline metliylen-bluc, are alluded to. The author’s paper, which 
is lengthy, is almost entirely clinical. 
Immunising Power of the Serum of the Vaccinated Heifer.*— 
MM. A. Beclere, Chambon, and Menard have made a series of experi- 
ments on the vaccinal immuuityand the immunising power of the serum 
of the vaccinated heifer. The procedure adopted was to inoculate the 
flanks of a heifer with approved vaccine, making linear incisions 2 cm. 
long, about 3-4 cm. apart, with quincunx arrangement, and from 80-120 
on each flank. The blood was drawn a certain number of days after the 
end of the virulent period, i. e. after the pustules no longer contained 
inoculable lymph. The serum was used by subcutaneous injection. A 
large number of experiments were made on animals and some on children, 
and from these the authors derive the conclusion that the serum of the 
vaccinated heifer, when taken, beyond the virulent period, from ten to 
fifty days after vaccination, possesses immunising properties against 
inoculated vaccine. This immunising action is very rapid, while that 
from subcutaneous vaccination is acquired slowly. This rapidity of 
action shows that the serum owes its immunising properties to soluble 
substances and not to the presence of microbes. The immunity from 
subcutaneous vaccination is not complete till the eighth day, while that 
from serum is practically instantaneous. The evidence of the efficiency 
of both is the same, viz. inoculations are sterile, or rudimentary and 
abortive, and if the latter, then the virulence of the contents is attenuated. 
The quantity of serum required to confer even an incomplete immunity 
is relatively large, being not less than one-hundredth of the weight of 
the animal. The serum of the vaccinated heifer also possesses thera- 
peutic properties as against the vaccine, and this action is less marked 
the longer the interval after inoculation. 
One of the authors has used this serum of the vaccinated heifer on 
seventeen cases of small-pox. One of the patients, who received, on the 
third day of the eruption, by subcutaneous injection, in the space of one 
hour, more than a litre and a half of serum, and this without any local or 
general ill effects, got rapidly well. 
Spirillum desulfuricans.f — Prof. M. W. Beyerinck has isolated from 
ditch water an organism which is strictly anaerobic and whose most 
striking characteristic is its power of reducing sulphates. The colonies 
are composed of short spirilla, very little bent, and usually about 4 fx 
long and 1 /x thick. The individuals are extremely mobile, but their 
movements are quickly stopped on access of oxygen. The isolation of 
the organism, owing to its extreme sensitiveness to oxygen, was very 
difficult. Success was eventually attained by employing a special 
apparatus for its separation. The apparatus is a modification of the 
•ordinary fermentation flask, and its construction rests on the principle 
that the ordinary specific weight of bacteria is greater than that of the 
* Ann. Inst. Pasteur, x. (1896) pp. 1-46 (9 figs.). 
f Arch. Nc'erland. d. Sci. Exact, et Nat., xxix. (1S95) pp. 233-77. 
