192 
EXTRACTS FROM FOREIGN JOURNALS. 
It becomes evident from tliese observations that certain tumors 
of the cord following castration may be due to pathogenic germs. 
According to Johne, these would rise from the bedding of the 
animals operated upon .—Annates de Belgique. 
THE MICROBE OF RABIES. 
By M. Rivolta. 
The method by which the author is said to have demonstrated 
the constant presence of a spinal micro-organism in rabies, is thus 
described : 
After hardening the spinal marrow, the medulla oblongata and 
other organs of animals which have died with rabies, in alcohol, 
he makes fine sections, which he places in chloroform for twentv- 
four hours, in order to clean them from the fat they may contain. 
These are again placed in alcohol, and subsequently in a mixture 
of 10 parts of an aqueous solution of caustic potash (10%), 3 
parts of distilled water, and 3 of glycerine, where they are left for 
a period of five or six hours at most. 
The sections are then put into a solution of blue of methyline, 
where they remain for a few minutes, or until they become 
colored. They are then washed with distilled water, and spread 
on a slide and slowly dried in a moderate heat. 
This preparation is then sealed with Canada balsam dissolved 
in chloroform. If the slide is examined at that moment it presents 
a diffused coloration, but it is easy to bring out the peculiar 
coloration special only to the bacteria. By carefully exposing 
the slide to the flames of an alcoholic lamp, until the Canada 
balsam begins to boil, and then leaving it to become cool, the 
tissue loses its color, but the bacteria remains intact. By repeating 
this process two or three times, the bacteria are brought out in a 
handsome blue color, projected upon a colorless ground. 
Thus colored, the bacteria is seen to be formed of several 
round or oval granulations, united in chains, though at times, in 
some few cases, they seem uniform and appear to be formed of 
one single body. 
They are found in great numbers in the medula; they are also 
numerous in the marrow, but less so in the cerebral hemispheres; 
