ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
91 
extremely numerous, ancl that in scarcely any two lots of cream from the 
same dairy were the kinds of bacteria alike, but that the acid-forming 
species invariably predominated. 
Capsule Bacteria from Intestine of Swine.* — Dr. T. Smith, while 
examining bacteria from intestines of pigs, found colonies of capsule 
bacilli occasionally mixed up with those of Bacillus coli. Of these ho 
isolated three, and compares them morphologically and biologically with 
Friedlaend?r’s capsule bacillus; the four organisms are distinguished by 
the letters a, b, c, Fr. 
The bacteria a, b, c, are evidently closely allied, and are possibly to 
be regarded as sports of one species. Morphologically they are scarcely 
distinguishable from one another. All are motionless rodlets in which 
a capsule is frequently to be distinguished, and which do not liquefy 
gelatin. They are facultative anaerobes, ferment sugar with formation 
of C0 2 and H, and coagulate milk. All form a ropy substance, which 
in the case of b is very copious, and makes milk viscid. 
Besides the foregoing these bacteria present several minor differences. 
In the course of his remarks the author notes that drying often makes 
a colony become polymorphic, and that this may be prevented by dipping 
the plugs or corks of a tube or roll cultivation in sterile paraffin. It 
is also pointed out that the capsules of bacteria may be detected by 
placing a fragment of a quite fresh cultivation on a drop of water and 
examining it as a hanging drop. Then if the edge of the drop be 
focused on, it will be found that where the bacteria are packed 
closely together they are everywhere at the same distance apart, 
and in many cases, by careful focusing, the capsule can be distinctly seen. 
Results of Bacteriological Examination of Liege Water.f— M. E. 
Malvoz says that, when estimating the properties of a drinking water, 
it is not sufficient merely to determine whether the water can at the 
time be used without danger, but to diagnose whether it is likely to 
suffer from contamination in the future. The presence or absence of 
pathogenic micro-organisms, the total number of germs, and the quantity 
of organic matter have to be determined. A certain amount of the 
latter points, even in the absence of micro-organisms, to a possible 
infection of the water, and if it contain no pathogenic microbes and no 
suspicious organic matter, yet the number of saprophytic bacteria are 
to be taken into consideration in calculating whether a water be well 
protected against impurities, since the latter may at times be succeeded 
by pathogenic micro-organisms. If the quantity of germs vary from time 
to time, it may be laid down that there exists a permanent source of 
contamination, but liable to oscillations. 
Infection of the Foetus through the Placenta. $ — In his experi- 
ments for ascertaining the path by which pathogenic bacteria pass from 
the mother to the foetus, Dr. Birch-Hirschfeld used anthrax bacilli, and 
paid special attention to the microscopical appearances of the placenta. 
* Centralbl. f Babteriol. u. Parasitenk, x. (1891) pp. 180-6. 
t Ann. Soc. Med.-Chir. tie Liege, 1S90, Nos. 8, 9. See Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. 
Parasitenk., x. (1891) pp. 197-8. 
t Ziegler’s Beitrage zur Path. Anat. u. Allgem. Pathol., ix. No. 3. See Centralbl. 
f. Bakteriol. u. Parasitenk., x. (1891) pp. 85-8. 
