72 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
Bacillus having the Tinctorial and Morphological Characters of 
Tubercle Bacillus.* * * § — Herr Moeller states that he has found an organism 
on Timothy grass (used as fodder for horses) and in cow-dung, -which 
has the same shape and staining reaction as the human tubercle bacillus. 
The cows did not react to tuberculin. The same bacillus was also 
found in the evacuations of goats, pigs, and horses. It frequently forms 
filaments with bulbous swellings, but never branches. When injected 
intraperitoneally into guinea-pigs, severe lung mischief with breaking 
down of the pulmonary tissue ensued. 
Bacillus Dysenterise.f — Dr. K. Shiga describes a bacillus which ho 
has isolated from the dejecta in 34 cases of dysentery, and has also 
found in the intestinal wall and mesenteric glands of two cases dead 
of the disease. It is a short rodlet with rounded ends, and has much 
resemblance to the typhoid bacillus. It exhibits the agglutination 
phenomenon when acted on by the blood-serum of persons suffering 
from dysentery. When introduced into the stomach of cats and dogs, it 
excites in 1-2 days a diarrhoea with loose mucoid motions. The author 
expresses hopes that he will be able to prepare an effective curative 
serum, as experiments made on himself lead him to this expectation. 
Bacillus anthracis similis.J — Prof. J. McFarland describes an 
organism isolated from the pus of an abscess, the colonies of which were 
identical with those of B. anthracis. It is a large bacillus with slightly 
rounded ends, and forms long filaments with transverse septa. The 
filaments form parallel wavy bundles, and in tbe older parts of the 
growth numerous oval endogenous spores were observed. In bouillon 
cultures four days old there were no spores, but in agar cultures three 
weeks old there was scarcely anything else but spores. 
Agar and gelatin cultures are precisely similar to those of B. anthracis. 
On bouillon there forms a surface mycoderm and a sediment from con- 
stantly precipitating bacillary masses. In a few days the surface scum 
sinks, leaving the supernatant fluid clear. The growth on potato is 
luxuriant. B. anthracis similis is n on-pathogenic to guinea-pigs, mice, 
or rabbits. 
Bacillus luteus sporogenes.§ — Mr. R. F. Wood Smith and Mr. J. L. 
Baker have separated this bacillus from two different samples of beet- 
root sugar. It is a long endosporogenous bacillus, growing with great 
rapidity in all the ordinary artificial nutrient media, with the formation 
of a yellow pigment. The agar cultures exhale an odour resembling 
impure acetamide and some other amido compounds. Gelatin is slowly 
liquefied. The organism is 4-5 jjl long, highly motile, and possessed of 
from 2-4 lateral flagella. These flagella are eight or nine times as long 
as the bacilli themselves, and are peculiar on account of their straight- 
ness and freedom from the undulating form of most flagella. The 
organism stains readily with the usual anilin solutions, and also by 
Gram’s method. The spiores stain well with hot phenol-fuchsin. 
* Berlin. Tierarztl. Wochenschr., 1898, p. 100. Deulsclie Med. Wochenschr., 1898, 
No. 24. See Centralbl. Bakt. u. Par., l te Abt., xxiv. (1898) pp. 844-5. 
it Centralbl. Bakt. u. Par., l te Abt., xxiv. (1898) pp. 817-28, 870-4, 913-8 
(4 figs.). l Tom. cit., pp. 556-7. 
§ Centralbl. Bakt. u. Par., 2 te Abt., iv. (1898) pp. 788-9 (2 figs.). 
