556 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
virulence of this particular bacillus was slight. The chief points of 
interest in this case are that the typhoid bacillus may give rise to a 
latent abscess of bone, and that this particular osteomyelitis was 
apyrexial, simulating clinically tuberculosis. 
Abnormal Types of Coli Bacilli.* — Dr. Befik has observed five 
different types of the coli bacillus in the water of Constantinople and 
adjacent parts. Type A ferments a medium containing pepton and 
lactose (3 per cent.), and gelose containing glucose 2 per cent. ; it 
coagulates milk. Type B ferments lactose and glucose, but does not 
coagulate milk. Type C ferments lactose and glucose, but does not 
coagulate milk. Type D does not ferment either lactose or glucose, and 
coagulates milk. Type E does not ferment either lactose or glucose, 
and does not coagulate milk. These five types are all mobile; none 
give the indol reaction ; their cultures on potato are typical ; the number 
of cilia is small ; and they develope on all media more quickly and 
abundantly than the typhoid bacillus. All develope freely on Uschin- 
sky’s medium (water, 1 litre ; chloride of sodium, 5 grm. ; biphosphate 
of potash, 2 grm.; asparagin, 4 grm.; lactate of ammonia, 6 grm.). 
All these abnormal varieties are met with in water that contains the 
ordinary coli bacilli. 
Staphylococcus pyaemia after Chicken-Pox. | — Dr. C. Brunner de- 
scribes a case of general staphylococcous infection following on vari- 
cella. Staphylococcus aureus was present in the metastatic abscesses in 
the blood, in the urine, and even in the sweat. The virulence of the 
cocci cultivated from the blood was considerable, for 0 * 5-1 ccm. injected 
under the skin of guinea-pigs resulted in rapid formation of abscesses. 
Besides the numerous metastatic abscesses and the blood infection, there 
was double parotitis and suppurative otitis, the latter suggesting the 
possible original site or starting-point. 
Microbe of Distemper. £ — Dr. B. Galli-Valerio makes some further 
observations on the micro-organism of distemper ( Hundestaupe ; 
cimurro). This disease, says the author, is a malady like that of 
measles in children, and the name is often erroneously applied to 
various disorders. The microbe is an oval bacillus 1 • 25 to 2 • 25 /x long 
by 0*31 /abroad ; it is found in the lungs, brain, and spinal cord. Pure 
cultivations from these viscera are able to impart the disease to young 
•dogs. Old dogs are always immune. Babbits and guinea-pigs are 
refractory. Kecently the author has found the oval bacillus in the 
purulent secretion from the frontal sinus and the conjunctiva. In 
gelatin the growth is white, with the production of gas and the forma- 
tion of a funnel, but without liquefaction. The organism grows well on 
agar and potato, and in milk and serum. In old cultures the oval 
bacillus is mobile. In a few bacilli the poles are dilated owing to the 
formation of spores. The organism stains well with anilin pigments. 
Streptococcus peritonitidis equi.§— Herren H. J. Hamburger and 
J. A. Klauwers found in the exudation of a horse which died of peri- 
* Ann. Inst. Pasteur, x. (1896) pp. 242-3. 
t Deutsche Med.-Zeitung, 1896, Nos. 1-3. See Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. Para- 
sitenk., l ta Abt., xix. (1896) p. 486. 
% Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. Parasitenk., l te Abt., xix. (1896) pp. 694-8 (2 figs.). 
§ Tom. cit., pp. 882-4. 
