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SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
filter paper) in tlie air. The dried mass is then powdered in a mortar, 
and to it is added lukewarm water, or a mixture of glycerin and water 
(equal parts) in half the quantity of blood. After standing 3—4 minutes, 
it is filtered quickly either through linen or cotton-wool. To this last 
filtrate are added ten times its bulk of a mixture of equal parts of 
alcohol and ether, and after standing for a day it is filtered, and the pre- 
cipitate dried. The dried mass is then dissolved in 1/4 part (reckoning 
from the original bleeding) of water, filtered, then 1/4 part of glycerin 
added, or a 1/2 part of a mixture of glycerin and water. The latter 
glycerin extract is just as effective as the first one made from dog’s 
serum and fowl’s blood. 
Effect of Human Blood and other Body-juices on Pathogenic 
Microbes.* — Herr R. Stern obtained fresh untainted blood by means of 
sterilized cupping instruments. The blood was then poured into stop- 
pered glass vessels and therein defibrinated by shaking it up with gravel 
or glass beads. Portions of 6-8 drops were then distributed into test- 
tubes by means of a pipette. The blood was inoculated from agar or 
gelatin cultivations except in the case of anthrax, when the spleen of a 
mouse dead of anthrax or a microscopically spore-free bouillon culti- 
vation was used. In each experiment a part of the specimen tests was 
heated before inoculation for half an hour up to 55° or for a short 
time to 60°. After inoculation the test-tubes were incubated at 37°, 
and at various intervals of time were poured on agar or gelatin plates. 
Experiments were also made with the following fluids, — pleural and 
peritoneal exudates, and those from hydroceles and blisters. 
From his experiments the author draws the following conclusions : — 
(1) Human defibrinated blood has the power of killing certain 
pathogenic bacteria. It acts most strongly on B. cholerae asiaticse , 
less on B. typhi abdominalis , and still less on Friedlaender’s Pneumo- 
bacillus. 
(2) The exudates and transudates possess the same property and to 
the same degree. 
(3) The action of the blood and other body-juices appears, in 
different individuals and even in the same individual at different times, 
to be liable to not inconsiderable variations in intensity. 
(4) The blood in acute infectious diseases (enteric, pneumonia) does 
not evince, as far as can be judged from experiments, any considerable 
deviation in germicidal action. 
(5) Other pathogenic microbes (R. anthracis, B. diphth., St.pyog. alb . 
and aur., and St. pyog .), develope freely in the blood either immediately 
after their entrance or after a preliminary delay. 
The germicidal action of human blood and other body-fluids was 
effectually removed by heating it for half an hour up to 60°. 
Antiseptic Value of Anilin Pigments. | — M. Valude finds that violet 
and yellow pyoctanin are inhibitive of the growth of Staphylococcus 
pyogenes aureus and Streptococcus pyogenes in the proportion of 0*35 grm. 
pyoctanin to the litre. 
* Zeitschr. f. Klin. Mediein, xviii., Nos. 1 and 2. See Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. 
Parasitenk., ix. (1891) pp. 132-3. 
t Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. Parasitenk., ix. (1891) p. 711. 
