tion. The organisms lie below the characteristic pseudomembrane in abundance. For their demonstration the organs are first hardened in concentrated sublimate solution, then in alcohols of increasing strengths. The sections are stained ten minutes in cold phenolthionin solution, placed in alcoholic solution of iodin a few seconds. (0.01 iodin in 200 alcohol), washed with alcohol, and finally counterstained with safranin. The inoculation of animals was successful only when streptococci, B. coli, pyocyaneum, etc., were also inoculated with the special bacterium. The organism appears strikingly similar to those found in stomatitis ulcerosa (see below). Also sometimes abundant spirochætæ are found in hospital gangrene.

Pneumonia in Cattle.

(Péripneumonie des bovidées.)

It does not lie within the scope of this book to speak of the cause of this disease in detail, while, on account of its extreme minuteness, nothing definite can be said of its form even when magnified two thousand times. The cultivation was primarily successful when small, thin, collodion sacs, containing bouillon and a trace of the fluid from the lung of a sick animal, were placed in the abdominal cavities of living guinea-pigs. After fifteen to twenty days the sacs were removed, and the fluid was found very slightly cloudy because of the above-mentioned, most minute, motile objects. By means of the organisms which have been transplanted repeatedly upon artificial nutrient media, cattle may be infected in the characteristic manner, and the organism again be cultivated in vitro in peptone solution to which a few drops of serum have been added. (See Nocard and Roux, Annales de l'Inst. Pasteur, 1898, 240.)

Measles.

Canon and Pielicke (C. B. XIV, 287) claim to have found constantly in fourteen cases of measles a bacterium which is most variable in size (very minute to 3.4 μ), and which stains interruptedly with a mixture of 80 c.c. of saturated aqueous solution of methylene-blue and 20 c.c. of 0.25%

eosin solution (in 70% alcohol) after three hours at incubator temperature. Only from the sixth day of the disease on, are the organisms found in preparations, which does not bespeak an etiologie significance for them. Still, the discoverers consider this organism, which does not stain by Gram's method, and cannot be cultivated (only upon blood-bouillon many times a slight growth appears), to be the cause of measles.

Recently Czajkowski (C. B. xvIII, 517) has found similar organisms in the blood, which he has portrayed and cultivated upon glycerin-agar, but especially upon bloodglycerin-agar. The growth is delicate, scanty, and like dewdrops. The organism is pathogenic for mice. It is motile and is not stained by Gram's method.

Mouth and Foot Disease.

In opposition to numerous defective investigations which have recognized the cause of this disease in most variable sized and sometimes easily cultivated fission-fungi (compare Stutzer and Hartleb, A. H., 1897, 372), Löffler and Frosch have determined that the cause of the foot and mouth disease is indeed present in the contents of the mouth and foot vesicles, but that it is so minute that it passes through dense bacterial filters and is invisible with the best microscopes. Only after repeated filtration through the densest filters does the lymph lose its infectious properties (C. B. xxIII, 371).

Myxoma Disease.

It

The ease is so far unrecognizable. The disease occurred spoumonsly in Sanarelli's rabbits in Montevideo. were self in conjunctival catarrh, leonine swelling of

mi mose inflammatory swelling of the urinary and time and buttocks, especially in hyperplastic the places where the skin and mucous memmy xomatous or gelatinous subcutane

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what very vascular are found in various I met animals dying from the subwww.tem reveals hypertrophy of the dwelling of the spleen. The

disease is easily produced in rabbits by inoculation with the perfectly clear and apparently entirely sterile serum from other cases. Also dogs and men react to the inoculation (C. B. xx111, 865).

Noma.

Petruschky has found diphtheria bacteria together with pseudodiphtheria bacteria in two cases of noma faciei, which he cured with diphtheria antitoxin (Deut. med. Wochenschr., 1898, 600).

Epidemic Parotitis.

Laveran (Compt. rend. de la soc. de Biolog., 1893, 95) found diplococci in the blood and organs in 67 out of 92 cases of mumps. They kill mice and cause in rabbits and dogs a transitory orchitis, which often is associated with mumps also. Meeray and Walsh (C. B. xx1, 68) have made similar observations. The cultures were described by the latter authors as very similar to those of very poorly growing Microc. pyogenes.

Diseases of Plants.

In spite of the efforts of numerous investigators to demonstrate bacteria as the cause of diseases of plants, we possess little knowledge which is free from objection in this field. The botanist Alfred Fischer takes an especially skeptical stand regarding the statements so far made (C. B. L. v, 279), while Erwin Smith, who has himself done much work in this field, is much more optimistic in his judg ment, and considers the connection of bacteria and disease to have been demonstrated in a whole series of instances. He enumerates some of the varieties of bacteria which are most certainly pathogenic for plants (C. B. L. v, 271; in the same place the literature is given). We refer to the following: Bacillus amylovorus Burrill (cause of a disease of apple and pear trees), Bacillus oleæ Savastano (tuberculosis of the olive tree), Bacillus hyacinthisepticus Heinz, Bacillus tracheiphilus Erw. Smith (injurious to various cucurbitaceae), Bacillus solanacearum

Erw. Smith (injurious to crucifera). Besides, there have been described bacterial diseases of vines, celery, and sugar-beets, yet only exceptionally are the descriptions sufficiently complete.

Rachitis.

Mircoli ascribes it to Microc. and Strept. pyogenes (C. B. xx, 321).

Acute Rheumatism.

It may be mentioned that Sawtschenko, with Achalme, has recently recognized the cause of acute rheumatism in an anaerobic, sporulating bacillus. Confirmation is awaited with interest (C. B. xxiv, 794).

Cattle Plague.

We only know that the causative agent does not pass through a clay filter: the German investigators in South Africa consider the statements, accompanied by illustrations, of Nencki, Sieber, and Wyznikiewicz (C. B. xxiii, 529) as delusions. They recognize the cause of the plague in a small, spherical organism, but do not directly designate it a micrococcus. The organism is said to grow in peptone solution.

According to Abbe, the limit of the working capacity of our microscopes lies at 0.1 to 0.2 μ.

Scarlatina.

Many of the older writers especially, and of the newer ones, for example, d'Espine (C. B. XVIII, 132),—are of the opinion that the specific cause of scarlatina resides in the streptococcus which is very frequently present, but this is almost certainly not true. Czajkowski (C. B. XVIII, 116) never failed to find in the blood of seventeen cases of scarlatina a diplococcus (according to the illustrations, more like short diplobacilli) which grows to a limited extent upon solid nutrient media (glycerin-agar, blood-agar, serum), more luxuriantly in fluid nutrient media, and is pathogenic for mice. It is not stated whether the diplococcus appears as a streptococcus upon

fluid nutrient media. The great tenacity of the cultures is striking.

Doehle (C. B. XII, 906) and L. Pfeiffer consider protozoa to be the cause of scarlatina.

Ulcerative Stomatitis and Angina.

Bernheim (C. B. XXIII, 177) described two organisms as frequently or constantly present in the ulcers of the gums and tonsils:

1. A bacillus resembling the B. diphtheria (once noticed to be motile), somewhat larger than it, with pointed ends, often more or less curved, staining rather faintly with Löffler's methylene-blue, and decolorized by Gram's method if the alcohol acts a long time.

2. A fine spirochate, which does not stain by Gram's method, similar to the spirochætæ of the teeth.

Neither could be cultivated.

Similar results have been obtained by many other writers, as Vincent and Abel. (See Abel, C. B. XXIV, 1). The results obtained by Vincent in hospital gangrene in Madagascar are strikingly similar; also both organisms were present. (Compare p. 468.)

J. Seitz has described as the Bacillus hastilis a widely distributed (tonsils, etc.), long, slender organism with pointed ends, which has not been obtained in pure culture. It appears to be closely related to Bernheim's organism of stomatitis ulcerosa. From non-saccharine bouillon it forms foul-smelling gas (Z. H. xxx, 47).

Trichorrhexis Nodosa.

According to Marcusfeld, caused by a sporulating bacillus, perhaps from the subtilis group. The relation to the disease is uncertain (C. B. XXI, 230).

Typhus Exanthematicus.

Lewaschoff (C. B. XII, 635, 728; xvi, p. 132) claims. to have cultivated a characteristic Micrococcus exanthematicus in pure culture upon ascites-agar from the juice of the spleen or blood from the finger in 118 cases of typhus