ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
641 
well and quickly, and does not liquefy the medium. In sections of lung, 
&c., the bacillary chains were often in knots or clumps. Though no 
movements were observed in hanging drops, one or even two short spiral 
polar flagella were demonstrable by van Ermengem’s method. 
The bacilli are stainable by Gram’s method if the preparations are 
treated with the gentian solution for one minute and with iodo-potassic 
iodide for four. The presence of the bacilli within leucocytes was a 
marked and noticeable feature. Two monkeys inoculated with pure 
cultures succumbed on the 10th and 14th days. Deposits were found in 
the lymphatic glands and in the spleen. Cover-glass preparation sec- 
tions of affected organs and cultures showed the presence of the bacillus 
in copious quantity. 
Pseudo-tuberculosis of Sheep.* — An affection of sheep, associated 
with certain tracts of country, has been discovered in Australia. The 
contagion is derived from the soil, and invades the animal through in- 
juries of the skin. It is characterised by swellings of the lymphatic 
glands which contain a firm friable green-coloured substance. The 
microbe is a short oval non-'motile bacillus varying from 1/16000 to 1/8000 
in. in length. On agar the colour is white, and yellow on blood-serum. 
It is pathogenic to guinea-pigs and rabbits, but not to dogs. 
Bacillus closely resembling Pfeiffer’s Bacillus.f — Dr. Elmassian, 
while making some investigations relative to the aetiology of whooping- 
cough, met with a small slender bacillus which very closely resembles 
the bacillus of influenza. The distinctive difference was that the new 
bacillus was cultivable on serum devoid of haemoglobin, which is indis- 
pensable to the growth of Pfeiffer’s bacillus. The new bacillus is not 
confined to whooping cough, for it was also found in other morbid con- 
ditions of the respiratory passages. It is a small bacterium about the 
size of the bacillus of acute contagious conjunctivitis, but a little 
thicker ; it often presents a slight median constriction ; its ends are round 
or pointed ; and while many elements are clearly bacillary, others are 
coccoid. From the pneumococcus it is easily distinguished by not 
staining by Gram’s method. It was cultivated on serum-gelose (2 per 
cent, pepton, 6 ccm. gelose, 8 ccm. serum), but would not grow on 
media not containing serum. Cultures injected into the peritoneal sac 
of guinea-pigs were fatal from peritonitis, pleuritis,* and pericarditis. 
Pigeons, mice, and rabbits were refractory. 
Bacillus fusiformis.J — Prof. H. Vincent describes a fusiform bacil- 
lus which he has found in the membrane formed in some kinds of sore 
throat. After staining smear preparations with thionin or fuchsin, the 
bacillus is observed as a rodlet 6-12 ^ in length. As its designation 
implies, the bacillus is thicker in the middle than at the ends, which 
taper off to long delicate points. Involution forms are very common. 
It does not stain by Gram’s method. All attempts at cultivation failed. 
This bacillus is frequently associated with a spirillum. 
The existence of another and previously undescribed microbe in 
pseudo-membranes is interesting and important. The differences between 
B. fusiformis and B. dijohtherise are sufficiently obvious. 
* Brit. Med. Journ., 1899, ii. p. 811. 
t Ann. Inst. Pasteur, xiii. (1899) pp. 621-9. I Tom. cit., pp. 609-19 (2 figs.). 
