802 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
of a morbid condition of milk — a condition characterized by the fluid be- 
coming viscid, stringy and ropy. It forms coccoid rodlets, with thick, re- 
fracting, non-staining capsule, and undergoes yeast-like involution forms, 
with small daughter-cells. \V hen cultivated in milk it measures on the 
average 1*5 /jl long and 1*25 fx broad, but is somewhat smaller when 
bred on pepton- gelatin or agar. Spore-formation was not observed. On 
plate cultivations of glycerin-pepton-gelatin and of agar, the colonies 
were whitish and round, growing at temperatures from 8° to 20°. No 
liquefaction of the medium took place. 
Besides being able to convert milk into the ropy condition, this 
microbe seems also capable of preparing the way for the action of the 
bacillus of lactic acid, and of removing the casein, since this substance 
cannot be precipitated from old milk cultivations by acidulation and 
boiling. 
The ropy substance is stated to be neither the product of a mucous 
fermentation nor a decomposition product of the bacillus itself, but to 
proceed from the sheath of the bacilli, and to be apparently, just as in 
B. mesentericus vulgatus , metamorphosed cellulose. 
The author afterwards proceeds to review the list of organisms 
which are known to have the power of causing milk to become viscid or 
Topy. 
Bacteria-protein and its relation to Inflammation and Suppuration-* 
— Herr H. Buchner finds that the decomposition products exert little or 
no influence on the behaviour of leucocytes.? 
Leucocytes are, however, extremely sensitive to bacteria-protein 
(Nencki), the subcutaneous injection of a few milligrams of the protein 
of Bacillus pyocyaneus setting up an inflammation which is free from 
microbes and so to say chemical, and marked by all the chemical 
phenomena of erysipelatous inflammation. 
The pyogenic effect of the proteins of seven kinds of bacteria was 
examined by the author, who found that those of bacillus of typhoid, of 
the Pneumococcus, and of Bacillus pyocyaneus were very potent. 
The proteins were obtained by cultivating the bacteria on solid 
media, digesting the pure cultivation in weak caustic potash (0 • 1 to 
0 * 5 per cent.) and then precipitating the protein from the filtrate with 
ncetic or hydrochloric acid. 
Action of Light on Bacillus of Typhoid Fever.f — Herr Th. 
Janowski found from experiments made on the bacillus of typhoid that 
its development was inhibited or prevented by the action of light, and 
this effect is due to the chemically active rays of the solar spectrum. 
The action of diffuse light was first examined by exposing test-tube 
cultivations to its action, and by controlling the results with similar 
cultivations kept covered up. Any doubts about increased growth 
being due to more favourable thermic conditions were experimentally 
excluded. 
In a similar way the action of direct sunlight was tested and it was 
* Centralbl f. Chirurgie, 1890, No. 50. See Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. Para- 
•sitenk., ix. (1891) pp. 666-7. 
t Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. Parasitenk., viii. (1890) pp. 167-72, 193-9, 230-4, 
262-6. 
