96 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
Putrefactive Bacteria.* — Putrefactive decomposition is directly due 
to certain bacteria, and indirectly to moisture, warmth, and air. Post- 
mortem decomposition is, says Dr. S. Trombetta, mainly the result of the 
emigration of bacteria from the intestinal canal to the blood, organs, and 
tissues. That these micro-organisms are not present in the blood or 
organs during life has been demonstrated by several observers ; and the 
author’s experiments had in view the determination of the time when 
these micro-organisms begin to invade the body, or in other words, 
how long after death the body generally remains free from micro- 
organisms. 
It was necessary to be pretty sure that the animals used in the 
experiments were healthy. They were then killed by blows on the head, 
and their bodies kept for a certain time either in incubators at the 
ordinary temperature or in a refrigerator. Agar cultivations were then 
made from the blood and organs, and the results of these cultivations are 
recorded in a series of tables. The animals used were mice, rats, and 
rabbits. 
It was found that there existed a time limit below which the blood 
and organs of an animal killed while in a healthy condition are free 
from decomposition bacteria ; that this period was increased by refrigera- 
tion and diminished by incubation ; that the decomposition varied with 
the age of the animal, but not in proportion thereto ; that the decompo- 
sition process appeared irregularly in the blood and organs ; and that the 
process was not aflected by the kind of animal used. 
The following table shows the time when decomposition bacteria 
appeared, at low, medium, and high temperatures. 
Medium 
Temperature. 
Low 
Temperature. 
High 
Temperature. 
hours 
hours 
hours 
Mice 
19 
22 
5 
Rats 
18 
20 
5 
Rabbits 
16 
20 
6 
Toxin Fever of Bacillus pyocyaneus.| — The injection of Koch’s 
lymph, says M. A. Charrin, is followed by phenomena known as the 
reaction, the principal factor being rise of temperature, and this occurs 
not only in tuberculous, but in leprous, syphilitic, and healthy persons. 
The author records how the toxin of Bacillus pyocyaneus, injected for 
hemostatic purposes, invariably produced a rise of temperature, pro- 
vided that the dose were sufficient in quantity. 
It seems that the subcutaneous injection of 3 ccm. provokes consider- 
able fever, but a dose of from 1 to 2 ccm. is not followed by a rise of 
temperature of any importance. 
Isolating Bacillus of Typhoid from Water.J — M. H. Vincent re- 
commends the following method for obtaining pure cultivations of 
typhoid bacillus. To a test-tube of bouillon is added 1 drop of a 5 per 
* Ceutralbl. f. Bakteiiol. u. Parasitenk., x. (1891) pp. 664-9. 
f Comptes Rendus, exiii. (1891) pp. 559-60. 
t C.R. Soc. Biol., 1890, No. 5. See Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. Parasitenk., viii. 
(1899) pp. 212-3. 
