318 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
The colonies are white or slightly yellowish, and at first exhaled a 
fruity odour which was eventually replaced by the disagreeable smell 
of putrefaction. 
Inoculation of healthy plants with pure cultures reproduced the 
disease. The organism is designated Bacterium Oncidii. 
Mode of Action of Bacillus subtilis in the Phenomena of Denitri- 
fication.* — Mdlle. A. Fichtenholz cultivated Bacillus subtilis in an 
artificial medium composed of nitrate of potash 5 parts, phosphate of 
potash 1*25, sulphate of magnesia 0*0125, calcium chloride 0*0125, 
glucose 12*5, water 1000, and soda in quantity sufficient to render the 
medium slightly alkaline. At a temperature of 38-39°, and with free 
access of air, B. subtilis developed in this medium with normal morpho- 
logical characters. Soon after the formation of the zoogloea scum, 
ammonia appeared in the fermentation liquid. 
Thus B. subtilis is able to develop in an artificial medium which con- 
tains only nitric nitrogen, and this development is associated with ammo- 
niacal fermentation. The quantity of ammonia formed varies with the 
stage of fermentation. In the first few hours there is none ; after reach- 
ing its maximum it decreases. 
Chromogenic Oxydase secreted by the Coli bacillus.f — According 
to M. G. Roux, the coli, and indeed other bacilli, possess the property 
of forming pigment through the intermediary of the diastase secreted by 
them. 
The diastase in question, more properly designated oxydase, owing 
to its special function, was studied under two conditions. In the first 
experiment, laccase and artichoke gelatin were mixed. The mixture 
gradually assumed an olive-green hue, while the control tubes remained 
unaltered. In the second series, ordinary pepton-gelatin containing a 
minute quantity of hvdroquinone was inoculated with coli bacillus. 
The medium soon became brown, and by the end of the third week was 
of a mahogany-red hue. The control tubes remained unchanged. The 
production of this pigment is due to an oxydase which can only act in 
the presence of oxygen, but is not affected by the absence of light. 
The foregoing observations were led up to by Roger’s experiments 
with the coli bacillus on artichoke. On this medium coli cultures pro- 
duce an emerald-green pigment, and also, as was found by the author, on 
artichoke-gelatin. 
Bacillus cadaveris sporogenes.J — Mr. E. Klein describes a bacillus, 
met with in the intestinal contents of man and animals, which in shape 
and size closely resembles the bacillus of tetanus. The organism, desig- 
nated B. cadaveris sporogenes ( anaerobicus ), is an essential anaerobe, 
produces gas, is motile, and forms terminal spores. It rapidly liquefies 
sugar, gelatin, and coagulated blood-serum ; it is not pathogenic to 
animals. The typical bacillus is a straight rodlet 2-4 /x long, and these 
rods may grow into quite long filaments. In each bacillus there may be 
an oval spore, 1 * 6-1 * 8 /x long and about 0 * 8-1 p broad. The bacillus is 
provided with tufts of long thin wavy flagella. Both the vegetative and 
* Comptes Rendus, cxxviii. (1899) pp. 442-5. 
+ Tom. cit., cxxviii. (1899) pp. 693-5. 
t Central bl. Babt. u. Par., l te Abt., xxv. (1899) pp. 278-84. 
