ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSOOPT, ETC. 
645 
coccus often found by the author in milk. The procedure adopted was 
the usual one, viz. first to wait to see if the milk in the tubes was quite 
sterile, and then having inoculated them with different micro-organisms 
to incubate the tubes at 37°. 
The results of the action of these microbes in cow’s and goat’s milk 
are then given in a series of tables, the first two of which deal with 
fresh milk drawn in sterilized tubes. The diminution was most notable 
in the case of the cholera vibrio and the typhoid bacillus, the other two 
being more resistant. If the milk were inoculated with a large quantity 
of the poison the germicidal action would seem to be in great measure 
overpowered. Again, if milk be heated, the germicidal action is 
diminished or lost, hence pasteurization or heating milk to kill off con- 
taminating germs to 68°-69° for 20 minutes is detrimental to this vital 
phenomenon. 
The bactericidal power was found to reside almost entirely in the 
serum or skim milk, the cream having almost no deleterious action. 
The author concludes with some speculations on the nature of the 
bactericidal substance or essence, and gives reasons for preferring to 
regard it in the light of a ferment, insoluble perhaps, rather than as a 
something having a certain chemical reaction, and possessing properties 
in virtue of this alkaline or acid reaction. 
Antitoxic Power of the Animal Organism.* — M. Gamaleia records 
the results of experiments with Vibrio Metschnihovi. The author had 
previously shown that animals naturally insensitive to the infection of 
the vibrio (e. g. rabbits) are also insensitive to the toxin produced by the 
vibrio. The present experiments were directed to ascertain if possible 
on what this insensibility depended. He collected the urine of rabbits 
which had been injected with large quantities of sterilized cultivations 
of the vibrio, and sought, but in vain, for some evidence of the toxin. 
He then supposed that perhaps the tissues of the insensitive animals 
possessed the property of destroying the toxin. To prove this hypothesis 
he rubbed the inoculation fluid with the spleen just removed from a 
living rabbit. This mixture was placed in an incubator at 37°, filtered 
and inoculated in mice and guinea-pigs. Inoculations showed that the 
mixture had lost its toxic action. It was also found that this antitoxic 
action was possessed not only by the spleen, but also, though in a less 
degree, by the blood-serum of rabbits. Hence it follows that the living 
tissues of insensitive animals are endowed with the capacity of destroying 
the vibrio toxin. 
With sensitive animals the antitoxic action does not increase, for the 
author found that in guinea-pigs, after protective inoculations against 
V. Metschnihovi and cholera vibrio, their power of resistance to the 
soluble products of these micro-organisms does not increase, while on 
the other hand their power of destroying the microbes augments. From 
this the author concludes that there exists a certain antagonism between 
the antiseptic and the antitoxic properties of these animals. 
Isomeric Lactic Acids as criteria diagnostic of certain species 
of Bacteria.j* — M. Nencki after alluding to the discovery of a micro- 
* La Semaine Med., 1890, No. 56. See Centralbl. f. Bukferiol. u. Parasitenk., ix. 
(1891) pp. 452-3. f Centralbl. f. Bakteriul. u. Parasitenk., ix. (1891) pp. 304-6. 
1891. 2 z 
