Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  ) 
January,  1920.  | 
Current  Literature. 
55 
shown  up  by  double  staining,  in  true  diphtheria  bacilH.  Their  two 
years  of  experience  with  this  method  of  differentiation  has  con- 
firmed its  precision  and  rehabiHty.  The  pseudodiphtheria  bacilli 
never  show  these  granulations  at  the  poles  when  stained  by  the 
technic  described,  which  is  a  modification  of  Neisser's  first  method. 
The  specimen  is  incubated  at  55°  C.  for  twenty  hours  and  each  loop 
of  the  culture  is  spread  on  two  slides.  One  slide  is  treated  with  the 
Gram,  the  other  after  fixation  by  heat  is  covered  with  a  solution 
made  by  dissolving  i  Gm.  of  methylene  blue  in  20  Cc.  of  95  per  cent, 
alcohol,  and  adding  950  Cc.  of  distilled  water  and  50  Cc.  of  glacial 
acetic  acid.  The  smear  covered  with  this  solution  is  heated  until  it 
begins  to  steam.  It  is  then  heated  a  second  time,  and  is  then  left  in 
contact  for  five  minutes.  It  is  then  rinsed  rapidly  with  distilled 
water  and  covered  with  the  second  stain  for  ten  or  twelve  seconds 
and  rinsed  quickly  in  distilled  water.  This  second  solution  is  made 
by  dissolving  5.50  Gm.  vesuvine  in  250  Cc.  of  boiling  distilled  water, 
filtering  while  still  boiling.  The  granules  clustered  at  the  poles  of 
the  bacilli,  or  only  in  some  of  them,  show  up  a  black  oval,  larger 
than  the  body  of  the  bacillus.  In  their  800  tests  they  never  found 
these  polar  granulated  bacilli  except  with  true  diphtheria  and  they 
always  found  them  then.  They  warn  that  one  other  bacillus  may 
present  these  granulations.  Bacillus  cutis-commune.  But  they  never 
found  this  in  the  throat  in  any  of  their  tests.  It  differs  from  the 
diphtheria  bacillus  further  in  attacking  saccharose.  In  case  of 
diphtheric  lesions  elsewhere  than  in  the  throat,  it  might  be  advisable 
to  test  a  loop  on  a  sweetened  litmus  culture  medium  to  exclude  this 
bacillus.    (From  Jour.  Amer.  Med.  Assoc.,  Oct.  25,  1919.) 
PrESKnck  o:^  Aconitic  Acid  in  Sugar-Cane  Juick,  and  Ne^w 
Reaction  for  the^  Detection  of  the  Acid. — C.  S.  Taylor  (/. 
Chem.  Soc,  1919,  115,  886-889). — The  presence  of  aconitic  acid  in 
sugar-cane  juice  was  inferred  by  Behr  {Ber.,  1877,  10,  351)  but  not 
conclusively  proved.  In  the  author's  experiments  aconitic  acid  was 
isolated  from  both  healthy  and  diseased  sugar  cane,  though  it  could 
not  be  obtained  in  crystalline  condition  from  the  latter.  It  is  pres- 
ent in  the  form  of  a  salt  and  not  in  the  free  state  in  the  cane  juice. 
In  addition  to  the  usual  qualitative  test  it  was  found  that  aconitic 
acid  when  treated  with  acetic  anhydride  gives  a  pink  coloration, 
which  changes  rapidly  to  deep  red  and  then  to  magenta.  On  heat- 
ing the  mixture  a  bluish  green  liquid  is  obtained,  which  becomes 
