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SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
diminished on the addition of saltpetre, which is reduced more or less to 
nitrite or ammonia. 
When cultivated on eggs B. ramosus and B. cholerae asiaticae produce 
H 2 S copiously, and on blood serum when solid. Reaction for H 2 S was 
only obtained when the medium was liquefied. Besides H 2 S bacteria 
produce mercaptan, especially in solutions containing 10 per cent, pepton, 
and in egg and serum cultures. Both IJ 2 S and mercaptan are formed 
in the presence of nascent hydrogen from Witte’s pepton. From experi- 
ments on animals, undiluted ethyl-mercaptan appears to be highly 
poisonous. The authors then proceed to discuss the theory of H 2 S 
formation by bacteria. 
Influence of Alcohol, Glycerin, and Olive Oil on Disinfectants.* 
— Dr. P. Lenti finds that alcohol in the absence of water annuls the 
bactericidal power of sublimate or carbolic acid for anthrax spores, 
even when the sublimate is in 4 per thousand and the phenol in 
10 per cent, solution. The bactericidal power is recovered sufficiently 
to destroy spores only when the alcohol is diluted with not less than 
2 per cent, of water for solutions of 1 per thousand sublimate, and of 
70 per cent, for the solutions of carbolic acid, the length of time required 
by the sublimate being 24 hours, and 48 hours for the carbolic acid. 
Glycerin acts in quite a similar way ; for it impedes the action of 
2 per thousand solutions of sublimate when there is less than 40 per 
cent, of water. The inhibitory action is even more marked with car- 
bolic acid, for spores are completely destroyed only after 72 hours in 
10 per cent, carbolic acid with at least 80 per cent, of water. When 
carbolic acid and lysol are present in olive oil they have no disinfecting 
action. 
Bacteriology in Surgery, f — Dr. Wertheim states that Dr. Schanta 
has a competent bacteriologist present during operations on appendages ; 
the pus can be examined for bacilli within three minutes. So long as 
any cocci except gonococci are present drainage is always employed, 
as these septic cocci imply connection with the intestines or other 
cavities often too minute to be detected. 
Bacterial Flora of the Atlantic 0cean4 — Mr. H. L. Russell finds, 
from examinations of ocean water in the vicinity of Woods Holl, Mass., 
that bacteria, while present both in the deep seas and in littoral regions, 
are less abundant than in fresh water. In the mud of the ocean bottom, 
where they exist in large numbers, their presence is due both to the 
effect of gravity and to growth and reproduction of indigenous slime 
species. The number of bacteria varied from a few germs to 120 per 
ccm., the deeper strata being just as rich in bacteria as the superficial. 
Nearly a hundred samples of the sea bottom showed that the average 
number of bacteria per ccm. was about 17,000. The great difference 
between the number of bacteria found in the sea bottom and in the 
water immediately above is rather to be ascribed to the fact that the bottom 
offers conditions favourable to their requirements, than to mechanical 
sedimentation, though some are no doubt deposited, for these are found 
* Ann. dell’ 1st. d’ Igiene Speriment. Univ. di Roma, iii. (1893) p. 515. See 
Ann. de Micrographie, vi. (1894) p. 138. 
t See Brit. Med. Journ., 1894, No. 1753, p. 19. 
x Bot. Gazette, xviii. (1893) pp. 383-95, 411-7, 439-47 (1 pi.). Cf. this Journal 
ante , p. 502. 
