558 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
milk, pepton, and bouillon. Milk was not coagulated. On potato the 
growth was yellowish-green and moist-looking. Pepton and bouillon 
were rendered turbid. On agar and gelatin the growth w r as copious. 
There was no liquefaction of the gelatin or formation of gas. 
Identity of Clostridium fcetidum laetis and Bacillus cedematis 
maligni.* — In the course of experiments relative to cheese ripening, 
Dr. E. Yon Freudenreich became assured that Clostridium foetidum laetis 
and the bacillus of malignant oedema w r ere identical. The great dis- 
semination of the latter, especially in the excrement of animals, would 
explain its presence in milk. 
Bacillus saccharobutyricus.f — Dr. V. von Klecki describes a 
bacillus which plays an important part in the ripening and inflation of 
cheese. Bacillus saccliarobutyricus is 5-7 /x long and 0 * 7 [x broad. It 
propagates itself by spores given off usually at one end, though some- 
times at both. Free oval spores are also formed. At times it joins to 
form filaments some 20 /x long. It is slightly mobile. It is easily 
stained by anilin dyes, but not by Gram’s method. It is an essential 
anaerobe. It does not liquefy gelatin, and casein is but little affected 
by it. It ferments milk-sugar to butyric acid, formic acid, carbonic acid, 
and hydrogen. Together with butyric acid it apparently forms a higher 
fatty acid (valerianic acid). It developes gas very freely, especially on 
media containing lactose or pepton. On analysis these gases were found 
to be almost exclusively carbonic acid and hydrogen, in the proportion 
of about 32 and 68 per cent. 
Bacillus Delbruecki4 — In some remarks on the spontaneously occur- 
ring lactic acid fermentation which takes place in the process of distilla- 
tion when artificial yeast is used, Dr. G. Deichmann points out that this 
lactic acid fermentation is of great importance. According to Delbruck, a 
pure lactic acid fermentation takes place only at 40° B. or over ; for when 
the temperature sinks volatile acids appear, and various foreign organisms 
begin to develope. By the competition of these last the lactic ferment 
is sooner or later sujrpressed. The organism which excites this pure 
lactic acid fermentation is a thin motionless rodlet of variable length, 
existing singly, in pairs or short chains, and its most striking peculiarity 
is that it thrives best at an unusually high temperature. The author 
then goes on to compare the organism isolated from the yeast used in 
distillation, which he calls B. BelbriieJci, with B. laetis acidi, a bacillus 
which excites the lactic acid fermentation in milk, both at ordinary and 
at high temperatures. These two organisms, both in their morphologi- 
cal and physiological characters, presented extraordinary resemblances 
to one another ; even the acid produced was the optically active lmvolactic 
acid. Yet B. DclbruecJci, when tested with milk-sugar, failed to ferment 
it, and in sterilised milk grew very poorly, and that without any change 
in the reaction of the medium. In bouillon containing milk-sugar it 
did not grow any better than in sugar-free bouillon, but sugar- or 
maltose-bouillon was soon acidified and rendered turbid. 
* Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. Parasitenk., 2 te Abt., ii. (1896) pp ‘‘>16-8. 
f Tom. cit., pp. 169-84, 249-58, 286-95 (1 fig.). Cf. this Journal, ante , p. 461. 
% Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. Parasitenk., 2 te Abt., ii. (1896) pp. 281-5. 
