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SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
of cholera ; later on they resemble V. Metschnikovi , from which they are 
distinguishable by the slower liquefaction. In puncture cultivations 
the liquefaction appearances are extremely similar, and on agar the 
colonies are indistinguishable. The behaviour of V. danubicus was 
further tested in milk, potato, litmus-bouillon, pepton water, and by the 
iodoform reaction. Milk was coagulated in from 48-72 hours. On 
potato the vibrio formed yellowish-brown tufts when incubated. Litmus- 
bouillon was strongly reduced, a deep-blue bouillon being almost or 
entirely decoloured in 12-16 hours at 37°. The red nitro-indol re- 
action with sulphuric acid was obtained in five or six hours. When 
the iodoform test was applied, gelatin was found to be liquefied 
in four or five days. The author then gives the result of numerous 
experiments on animals, and it is chiefly from these that he infers that 
V. danubicus is a new species, though on the whole it is strangely like 
cholera vibrio, and has many features in common with V. Metschnikovi . 
Viability Period of Diphtheria.* — Dr. E. Abel narrates a case of 
diphtheria, the chief interest in it being the possibility that the contagion 
was nine years old. It was proved beyond doubt that the suspected 
source of contagion, a box of bricks, was actually infected with diphtheria, 
and that the diphtheria poison was at least six months old. After con- 
sidering the question from the light of other cases, the author rejects 
the period of nine years on account of its improbability, for at present 
about twelve months is the longest period through which the bacilli of 
diphtheria have been known to survive. 
Diagnostic Value of the Soluble Products of the Microbe of Peri- 
pneumonia bovina.'t' — M. S. Arloing states that pneumobacillin, a fluid 
prepared from Pneumobacillus liquefaciens on lines similar to those used 
in the preparation of tuberculin and mallein, manifests, when injected 
into the connective tissue of the ox, goat, and guinea-pig, inflammatory, 
hyperpyrexial, and congestive properties, phenomena similar to those 
produced by the filtered pulmonary serum or by filtered bouillon 
cultivations. Like tuberculin, it possesses the property of exciting 
inflammatory reaction about old peripneumonic lesions, e. g. synovitis. 
So far as the experiments have gone, they simply indicate that animals 
affected with chronic peripneumonia are more sensitive than healthy 
animals to the action of pneumobacillin. 
Mixed Infection from Tubercle Bacilli and Pyogenic Cocci4 — 
Dr. M. Jakowski records some interesting observations made on the 
blood of patients in the hectic conditions of phthisis. Cultivations 
were made with the blood, drawn from the fingers and obtained with 
antiseptic precautions, on agar and gelatin plates, and also on oblique 
agar tubes. The microscopical preparations were stained with aqueous 
solutions of gentian-violet and methylen-blue. 
Staphylococcus pyogenes aureus and Streptococcus pyogenes were found 
alone or in conjunction. From the small number of observations (nine) 
it is impossible to draw a positive conclusion, but as the author’s results 
* Central bl. f. Bakteriol. u. Parasitenk., xiv. (1893) pp. 75G-61. 
•f Comptes Kendus, cxvi. (1893) pp. 166-9. 
X Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. Parasitenk., xiv. (1893) pp. 762-6. 
