70 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
Prof. W. Podwyssotzky and M. W. Taranoukhine * have employed 
nutrient media containing lecithin, egg-yelk, or brain, for observations on 
plasmolysis as occurring in anthrax bacilli, in the bacterial sheath, and 
on brownian movements. They hold that they have definitely proved 
the presence of an enveloping membrane in bacteria, and that the 
influence of the cultivation medium, combined wittf the action of the in- 
cubation temperature, 42°-43°, cause the albuminous contents of the cell 
to cease to adhere to the sheath, which is therefore seen with surprising 
clearness. The contents of many of the cells exhibit lively movements 
which are brownian in character. 
In the course of a few days the cultures exhibited masses of spores, 
which increased pari passu with the destruction of the bacterial filaments. 
The anthrax spore is produced entirely at the expense of the protoplasm, 
the sheath taking no part in its formation. 
The foregoing phenomena are observed only when the medium 
contains both cerebral matter and pepton. If either or both be sup- 
pressed, the clearness of the capsule disappears, and the phenomenon of 
plasmolysis, which consists in a disintegration of the bacterial plasma 
into very small granules, is only occasionally witnessed. 
Two Bacteria concerned in the Ripening of Cheese.+ — Dr. H. 
Weigmaun describes in detail the morphological and cultural characters 
of two bacteria previously alluded to by him in an article on the asso- 
ciation of bacteria and cheese ripening. These two bacteria, presumably 
in symbiosis, produce a cheesy odour resembling that of Limburg cheese. 
Bacterium a ( Clostridium licheniforme ), is an aerobe which forms 
short rodlets with rounded or pointed ends, and also grows into filaments. 
It produces central and polar spores which are extremely resistant to 
heat. The single rodlet is covered with flagella and exhibits lively 
movements. Successful cultures were obtained on agar and gelatin, 
alone or mixed with grape-sugar, on potato, and in milk. Milk was 
coagulated, and a faint cheesy odour became perceptible. 
Bacterium b ( Parapledrum fcetidum ) was cultivated anaerobically, 
the most successful media being grape-sugar, agar, and milk. The 
individual rodlets vary in length from 2*6-14 p, and in breadth from 
0*6-1 *3 p. No flagella were demonstrable, and the bacteria did not 
stain by Gram's method. In milk, one end of the rodlet soon begins 
to swell, and by the third day the terminal thickening has become an 
obvious spore. The spores are 1*75-2*1 p long, 0* 9-1*0 p broad. 
From the anaerobic milk cultures, a pungent odour like that of over- 
ripe Limburg cheese arises. 
Bacterium a belongs to the group of cedema-bacilli, or to that of 
symptomatic anthrax and butyric acid bacilli. The anaerobic bac- 
terium b belongs in part to the symptomatic anthrax and butyric 
acid group, and in part to the tetanus group. 
Fish Disease caused by Bacterium vulgare.J — Herr 0. Wyss de- 
scribes a malady of fish in the Lake of Zurich. In Leuciscus rutilus, 
* Ann. Inst, Pasteur, xii. (1898) pp. 501-9 (1 pi.); and Buss. Arch. f. Pathol., 
v. (1898) p. 653. 
t Centralbl. Bakt. u. Par., 2 fe Abt., iv. (1898) pp. 820-34 (2 pis., 16 figs.). 
1 Zeitschr. f. Hygiene u. Infektjonsk}.*., xxvii. (1898) pp. 143-74. See Bot. Cen- 
tralbl , 1898, Beih., p. 83. 
