430 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
which is usually liquefied. If, however, much gas is at. first produced, 
there is little or no liquefaction and no spore-formation. Two curious 
differences in the behaviour of the microbe to milk are described ; in 
the one case the spores produce the typical change in milk, the wiiey of 
which contains non-sporing and virulent bacilli ; in the other case, 
atypical milk cultures are produced, and these contain sporing and non- 
virulent bacilli. Virulent cultures are pathogenic to rodents. The 
author then passes in review the characters of certain other anaerobes, 
and compares them with B. enteritidis sporogenes. B. enteritidis sporogenes 
has been detected in the stools and intestinal contents of cases of infan- 
tile diarrhoea and of cholera nostras, in samples of milk obtained from 
different sources, in sewage, and in manure. 
Streptococcus scarlatinse.* — Dr. Klein and Mr. M. Gordon, in a 
report on the microbes associated with scarlet fever, allude to Strep- 
tococcus conglomerate Kurth, and claim that it is identical with the 
Streptococcus scarlatinse isolated by Klein from the blood of acute 
cases of scarlatina, and from the ulcers on the udders of cows. Both 
organisms produce in broth cultures a nebulous whitish -grey mass of 
cocci threads which is deposited as sediment, the rest of the fluid re- 
maining clear. Both cause rapid coagulation of milk, and a broth 
culture of both when injected subcutaneously into mice produces septi- 
caernic infection and death. Observations made on later stages of the 
disease and during convalescence proved the not infrequent existence 
of Sir. scarlatinae in the throat. 
The method for detecting its presence is as follows : — A swab from 
the throat is stirred up in salt solution, and some of the latter rubbed 
over the surface of an agar plate, which is then incubated at 37° for 
21-48 hours. The colonies are small round translucent growths from 
which subcultures are made in alkaline broth. In 24-48 hours the 
characteristic appearance is presented. Subcultures in milk and incu- 
bated at 37° effect coagulation in 1-3 days. Litmus-milk is turned red. 
Bacilli granulosi.f — Herr Miihlschlegel describes three bacilli iso- 
lated from corn which were characterised by the presence of marked 
granulation and the formation of spores. The chief interest in these 
three microbes, B. granulosus immobilis a and (3, and B. granulosus 
mobilis, lay in the formation of the granules, which was found to occur 
both early and regularly in young cultures, and could hardly therefore 
be a degenerative phenomenon. Numerous observations and experi- 
ments were made to determine the exact nature ot these granules, and 
eventually a causative relation between the appearance of the spores and 
the disappearance of the spherules lying in their immediate neighbour- 
hood was established. These spherules do not appear to be identical 
with the granules found in pathogenic bacteria. They exhibit a spore- 
like character ; they exist in large numbers and in various sizes in the 
three bacilli examined, and impart to them a wave-like appearance. 
Their formation proceeds independently of spore-formation. The 
spherules become free along with the spores, and retain their shape for 
some time. The spherules do not germinate. 
* Rep. Local Govt. Board, 1897-8, pp. 326-31 (6 figs.). 
t Arb. a. d. k. Gesundbeitsamte, xv. pp. 131-52. See Centralbl. f. Bakt. u. Par., 
l te Abt., xxv. (1899) p. 771. 
