512 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
with copious evolution of carbonic acid gas, probably the result of its 
action on the sugar of milk. The optimum temperature is 36°. 
Bacillus Schafferi appears to possess several characteristics common to 
other bacteria, notably to B. coli commune Escherich, but is dis- 
tinguishable therefrom by differences in mobility, pathogenic action, 
aud capacity for existing in absence of air. 
The action of this bacillus was tested on newly made cheeses, and the 
results seem sufficient to support the author’s view, since the inoculated 
cheeses became spongy, while those kept as control specimens remained 
healthy. The milk was inoculated at the same time as the rennet was 
added. 
New Bacillus in Bees.* — Sig. G. Canestrini describes a new bacillus 
the occurrence of which is associated with great mortality in bee-broods. 
He thought at first that he would find the Bacillus alvei already described 
by several bacteriologists, but the new species is entirely different. 
Thus it forms a wine-red spot when cultivated on the potato, becomes 
encapsuled in blood-serum, and produces no pathological effects on the 
rat and guinea-pig inoculated with it. 
Fraenkel and Pfeiffer’s Microphotographic Atlas of Bacteriology, f 
— Parts 6-10 of this Atlas have now appeared. These numbers comprise 
plates XXVII.-LI., and the explanatory text. The micro-organisms 
dealt with in Parts 6-8 are those of malignant oedema, tetanus, sympto- 
matic anthrax, tubercle, leprosy, syphilis, glanders, and diphtheria. 
Anti-bacterial Properties of the Gastric Juice.t — Dr. R, Kianowsky, 
from a series of careful experiments, finds that the fasting stomach 
(14-18 hours after the last meal) contains numerous microbes. The 
number of bacteria colonies which can be obtained an hour after a meal 
appears to have no relation to the acidity or to the amount of hydro- 
chloric acid ; it depends directly on the quantity of microbes contained 
in the food 
With a moderate amount of acidity and moderate quantity of hydro- 
chloric acid the gastric juice keeps killing off the micro-orgactisms in 
the stomach ; in other words, the more the microbes are annihilated, the 
longer the gastric juice works. A strict ratio between the increase of 
the acidity of the gastric juice and the disappearance of the microbes 
does not exist. If the acidity of the gastric contents be very slight, the 
microbes increase in number. 
Experiments on the sick whose gastric juice still contains a sufficient 
quantity of free acid show that their gastric juice possesses anti-bacterial 
qualities similar to those of healthy men. 
New Bacillus from the Small Intestine. § — Dr. V. Boret describes 
a bacillus which was isolated from the small intestine of a patient dying 
of acute enteritis. The bacillus is from 2-4 /j. long, and from 1-1*5 fx 
broad, usually single and occasionally in pairs ; it is extremely mobile. 
It was best stained with phenolfuchsin, and also with safranin or 
* Atti Soc. Yen. -Trent. Sci. Nat., xii. (1891) pp. 134-7 (1 pi.). 
f ‘ Mikrophotograpliischer Atlas der Bakterienkunde,’ Berlin, 1890, 91. See 
Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. Parasitenk.. ix. (1891) pp. 204-5, 507-8. 
X Wratscb, 1890, Nos. 38-41. See Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. Parasitenk., ix. 
(1891) pp. 420-1. § Ann. de Microgr., iii. (1891) pp. 353-8. 
