494 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
months and then used for inoculation experiments, with the result of 
ten deaths from malignant oedema and two from tetanus. Eighteen 
other samples were mixed with bouillon and inoculated for 8-10 days 
at 37°. All the animals inoculated therewith died of tetanus. It is 
noteworthy that the author never found the organism of symptomatic 
anthrax in the earth, though the disease is not uncommon in upper 
Italy. 
Contemporaneous action of two poisons hastens death, and a com- 
bination of the metabolic products of a pathogenic and non-pathogenic 
anaerobe has the same result. A tetanus culture which kills guinea-pigs 
in three days, and a culture of malignant oedema, fatal in 24-36 hours, 
will in combination kill in 14-18 hours with tetanic phenomena. By 
the simultaneous use of symptomatic anthrax and of malignant oedema, 
the pathological results point rather to malignant oedema than to the 
former disease. 
Acceleration of death by inoculation with a pathogenic and non- 
pathogenic species results both when inoculation is simultaneous or 
when the non-pathogenic organism is first injected. The simultaneous 
infection with aerobes and non-aerobes has no accelerating effect. When 
the tetanoid anaerobes were cultivated on a nutrient medium which 
contains the tetanus poison they acquired toxic properties, but analogous 
results were not obtained from malignant oedema or from Rauschbrand. 
Vibrios and the Production of Lactic Acid.* — Dr. J. Kuprianow 
made experiments with a large number of different kinds of vibrios in 
order to ascertain whether bacteria belonging to the same morphological 
group formed the same acids, or whether any differences were to be 
determined. He found that by Vibrio aqiiatilis an inactive lactic acid 
is formed, by Vibrio Deneke , Koch , Finckler-Prior, and Metschnikovi an 
active one, V. Deneke turning to the right, the other three to the left. 
Vibrio Koch forms most lactic acid and decomposes most sugar, while 
Vibrio Deneke decomposes least sugar, forming proportionately little 
lactic acid. In the other three cases the consumption of sugar and the 
formation of acid was not found to go hand in hand. Besides lactic 
acids other products in variable quantity were formed. 
Other experiments with V. Deneke , Bonhoff a and b, and Derolinensis 
showed that all four made lactic acid ; that from V. berolinensis and 
Bonhoff a being inactive. That from Bonhoff a formed a modification 
turning to the right, and the Vibrio Weibel one turning to the left. 
Duration of Incubation of Air and Water Micro-organisms on 
Gelatin. — Dr. P. Miquel shows from a series of experiments recorded 
in tabular form that it is absolutely necessary to observe gelatin cultiva- 
tions of water and air bacteria for 15-30 days, if an approximately correct 
estimate is desired. The author finds that a calculation based on data 
derived from growth occurring between the 15th and 30th day of culti- 
vation in gelatin will suffice to give a fairly correct judgment, and 
suggests that experimenters should append to their analyses the times 
when the colonies have been counted, and should, moreover, refrain from 
* Arch. f. Hygiene, xix. (1893) No. 3. See Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. Para- 
kenk., xv. (1894) p. 489. f Ann. de Micrographie, vi. (1894) pp. 111-S. 
