228 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
the surface cauterised with a heated pipette. Into the centre of the 
eschar a capillary tube was plunged, and the minute portion of matter 
removed was placed in bouillon. Some of the infected bouillon was dis- 
tributed in gelose tubes, and incubated at 37°, some was inoculated in 
liquid serum, and some on solid serum. 
In some cases matter was removed from the tonsillar crypts and 
from the surface of the tonsil, and in pseudo-membranous cases the 
membrane itself was used. The result of the experiments was to show 
the remarkable constancy of the presence of Streptococcus. Out of the 
165 acute cases, the material in 142 came from within the tonsil, in the 
remaining 23 from the surface. In 126 cases, Streptococcus was alone, 
in 11 it was associated with Staphylococcus , and in 5 with Bacillus 
coli communis. In the 23 exudate eases, Streptococcus was alone in 12, 
associated with Staphylococcus in 6, with B. coli in 3, and with Pneumo- 
coccus and B. coli in 2 cases. 
From the 3 cases of chronic tonsillitis was obtained a pure culture of 
bacilli, having characters resembling those of B. coli. They were slightly 
mobile ; the colonies on potato were typical ; one coagulated milk, but did 
not give the indol reaction ; another had every character of B. coli , except 
mobility ; and the third reddened litmus milk without coagulating it. 
Character and Variability of Species of Tyrothrix Dnclaux.* — Dr. 
W. V inkier found, from an examination of species of Tyrothrix , that, 
while some, as T. tenuis , were more allied to the hay and potato bacilli, 
others, as T. urocephala and T. filiformis, were more nearly connected 
with the Granulobacteria (both aerobic and facultative anaerobic). They 
adapt themselves with ease to different nutrient media, their characters 
thereby becoming altered. In milk they are more or less peptonising. 
Butyric acid is only occasionally produced. Milk-sugar promotes 
growth, but appears to interfere with their peptonising power. Three 
varieties of T. tenuis were cultivated : (1) a form peptonising milk and 
liquefying gelatin ; (2) a form producing lactic acid, but not liquefying 
gelatin ; (3) a fluorescing form which formed a red pigment on potato. 
Bacillus xvi. Adametz, which is undoubtedly a species of Tyrothrix, is 
an example of the conversion of a lactic acid bacterium into a peptonising 
organism. T. urocephala and T. tenuis were found to aid the ripening 
of cheese, and there are grounds for believing that in this ripening, pep- 
tonising bacteria play the principal part. On bacteriological examina- 
tion of ripe hard- cheese, however, lactic acid bacteria were always found 
to predominate. It is possible to explain this by supposing that certain 
peptonising bacteria are converted into lactic acid bacteria, or develope 
the power of forming lactic acid more strongly. 
Specific Properties of the Protective Bodies in the Blood of Ani- 
mals immune to Typhoid and Coli Bacteria.f — Herren F. Loeffler 
and R. Abel made a large number of experiments with a view to ascertain 
the specific properties of the protective bodies in the blood of animals 
previously rendered immune to infection of typhoid and coli bacteria. 
The animals were treated with bacteria from different sources and of 
different virulence. Both kinds of bacteria had not only the typical 
* -Oentralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. Parasitenk., 2 te Abt., i. (1895) pp. 658-73 (G2 figs.), 
f Op. cit., l te Abt., xix. (1896) pp. 51-70. 
