500 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
Tlie author also makes some interesting observations on the general 
morphology of this group. He has remarked, though only in the multi- 
ciliated species and never in the uniciliated, the existence of a capsule 
in the centre of which the bacillus is seen. The cilia always proceed 
from the capsule, and seem to be of the same substance, and, as it were, 
a prolongation thereof. Often a single capsule contains two bacilli ; the 
number of cilia is then doubled. The author inclines to the belief 
that the bacilli so called are really the nuclei of a cell. This cell is 
difficult to show properly, and hence the ordinary methods of staining 
only show the bacilli. The author has also remarked that the move- 
ments of the uniciliated species are more rapid than those of the 
multiciliated. 
Bacterium coli commune in Living Blood.* — Drs. Sittmann and 
Barnow record a case from the blood of which they isolated during life 
Bacterium coli commune. The median vein was punctured eleven hours 
before death, and cultivations made with the blood on agar and gelatin 
plates. Pure cultivations of an organism morphologically identical 
with B. coli were obtained. The same organism was cultivated from 
the urine. Inoculation experiments with the pure cultivations were 
made on rabbits, subcutaneous, intravenous, and intravesical. Only the 
intravenous injections were successful, the failures being ascribed to the 
variability of virulence of this organism. The case clinically was one of 
septicaemia after stricture of urethra, followed by cystitis, pneumonia, 
suppurative nephritis, and endocarditis. 
iEtiology of Malta Fever, f — Surgeon Captain D. Bruce, in con- 
ducting an investigation into the nature of Malta fever, tried to establish 
the presence of a special micro-organism, by microscopical examination 
of the blood during life and tissues after death, and by making cultiva- 
tions from the blood and other organs. Successful cultivations were 
made from spleen pulp, and in twelve out of thirteen cases the presence 
of the same micro-organism was demonstrated. The microbe of Malta 
fever is a coccus of about 0*33 jx diameter. It is easily stained by 
aqueous gentian-violet solution, but is decolorized by Gram. The best 
cultivation medium was found to be 1 \ per cent, peptonized agar-beef- 
jelly. On gelatin the growth was slow, and there was no liquefaction of 
the medium. Inoculation experiments with pure cultivations of the 
coccus on animals were negative except in the case of monkeys. Out of 
four monkeys three died after inoculation, and from their viscera the 
micrococcus of Malta fever was cultivated. 
Tbe author concludes from his experiments that this disease is a 
specific fever, distinct from enteric or malaria, and that the coccus 
described is its proximate cause. 
Bacillus levans.J: — Prof. K. B. Lehmann states that a bacterium 
which he has named Bacillus levans is to be found in the yeast used for 
making rye bread. It is a facultative anaerobe, and will grow in an 
atmosphere of C0 2 . On gelatin plates a whitish deposit is formed, and 
* Deutsch. Arch. f. Klin. Med., lii. No. 4. See Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. Para- 
sitenk., xv. (1894) pp. 694-5. 
t Army Medical Department Keport for 1890, App. 4, xxxii. (1892) p. 365. 
X Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. Parasitenk., xv. (1894) pp. 350-4. 
