280 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
prepared the macaroni is almost quite white, and hence for chromogenic 
bacteria is an effective medium as the coloured colonies show up well 
against the white backing. 
Preparing Ammoniated Gelatin, and cultivating Bog-water 
Bacilli.* — For cultivating various Schizomycetes, Herf F. Pohl recom- 
mends gelatin which has been alkalinized by means of carbonate of 
ammonia, and this medium seems specially adapted for putrefactive 
organisms and for the long series of spirilla, for the development of 
which an alkaline medium and much oxygen are necessary. 
Gelatin cannot be alkalinized with carbonate of ammonia directly, 
and sterilized in the usual way, for then it very soon liquefies and loses 
its capacity for setting. The gelatin and carbonate of ammonia must be 
sterilized previous to being mixed, although for safety the mixture may 
be heated in a water-bath for half an hour, but not longer, otherwise 
the ammonia will have volatilized and the gelatin will not set. 
The gelatin was made up with bog-water, and the medium used for 
cultivating bog-water bacilli, of which four new species are described by 
the author, B. stoloniferus, B. incanus, B. inunctus, and B. Jlavescens. 
Besides gelatin, agar and potato were used as cultivating media, and their 
behaviour towards starch, milk, and sugar was also examined. None 
were pathogenic ; the first two turned sugar into alcohol, but diastase, 
indol, and phenol were not detected ; the last two possessed strong lique- 
fying action, peptonized milk without coagulating it, and converted 
sugar into alcohol. 
Epidemics among Mice kept for experimental purposes. - ) - — Prof. 
L. Loeffler narrates the history of two epidemics among the white mice 
kept for experimental purposes at the Hygienic Institute at Greifswald. 
In the first he was able to identify the micro-organism found in the 
bodies of the mice with the microbe of mouse septicaemia, an interesting 
discovery, because the infection had in all probability attacked the 
animals through the digestive tract, while it was first described by Koch 
as being intimately associated with experimental (artificial) traumatism. 
The total loss of life in this epidemic was fifteen. 
In the second epidemic 31 out of 45 animals died in the course of 
four weeks. The dead animals were found partially eaten ; it was 
therefore probable that the disease had been handed on. The post- 
mortem appearances were variable, the most prominent being a swollen 
brownish-red firm spleen, inflammation of the intestinal mucosa and 
swelling of the mesenteric lymphatic glands, a collection which at once 
recalls enteric fever. From all the dead mice was isolated a short 
bacillus, showing lively movements when observed on the hollow slide, 
and having numerous flagella when stained by means of an alkalinized 
mordant. 
The bacilli were cultivated on the usual media — gelatin, agar, blood- 
serum-pepton-sugar-bouillon, potato and milk. Neutral fluid media 
were rendered acid, gas bubbles were disengaged, and by the iodoform 
reaction alcohol was demonstrable in the distillate. Sections of the 
diseased organs showed that the bacilli were chiefly massed in the 
* Ccntralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. Parasitenk., xi. (1892) pp. 111-6. 
t Tom. cit., pp. 129-41. 
