ABSTRACTS AND REPORT.

ON THE TRANSFORMATION OF INDIVIDUAL VARIETIES OF THE TUBERCLE BACILLUS.

AUJESZKY endeavoured to discover whether the bacillus of fish tuberculosis, which had been cultivated for about three and a half years on potato at the ordinary temperature of the room, could be rendered pathogeniC for warm­blooded animals by cultivation at gradually increased temperatures. The culture of fish-tubercle bacillus was transferred to glycerinised potatoes and kept at a temperature of 28° to 30° C. In three weeks a trifling growth appeared and in six weeks fresh transfers were made to potato, these transfers being regularly repeated every four to six weeks. In this way Aujeszky succeeded, after the fifth series of cultivations, in producing an abundant growth at 37° C. Still continuing, he was able to obtain good cultures in from ten to fourteen days. A change in colour occurred, however. The cultures, which at first had been white, gradually assumed a greyish-yellow or bright red colour, and, on the varying culture media employed appeared to present no difference from those of the tubercle bacillus of mammals. Two guinea-pigs inoculated with the culture died after thirty-eight and sixty­three days respectively from typical peritoneal tuberculosis, whilst two others, inoculated with fish-tubercle bacilli growing at the temperature of the room, remained healthy. The new bacilli could be cultivated without difficulty, but only at a temperature of 37° C. They proved pathogenic for rabbits, white and grey mice, and white rats, though they failed to injure a fowl and some pigeons. Three calves were inoculated, one subcutaneously, one intra­peritoneally, and the third intravenously. In the calf inoculated subcut­aneously, an abscess, containing tubercle bacilli, developed at the point of injection, but the other two calves remained healthy. Three months later all three were tested with tuberculin, but with negative results. On post­mortem examination the calves inoculated intra-peritoneally and intravenously showed no lesions, but that injected subcutaneously revealed at the pomt of inoculation small suppurating centres in which tubercle bacilli were found, though the latter were no longer virulent and could not be cultivated. Tuberculin prepared from the fish-tubercle bacilli only caused a very trifling degree of fever ("6° C.) in an ox, which, on post-mortem examination, was found to be suffering from tuberculosis. It proved possible to cultivate rich growths from the thirteenth generation at a temperature as high even as 42. C. (A. Aujeszky, Kiizlenienyek az iisszchasonlito etet-es lortan kiirebet, Vol. VI., Parts 7 and 8, page 205; ex. Detttselle. Tierarzt. TVoellens.)

SPECIFIC PAPULAR STOMATITIS (A DISEASE SIMU-LATING FOOT-AND-MOUTH DISEASE IN OXEN).

OSTERTAG and Bugge have recently studied an epizootic disease of the mucous membrane of the mouth in Bavarian oxen. They obtained material from an affected animal and inoculated five calves by thrusting small fragments of the diseased mucous membrane of the mouth into pockets formed under the tongues of the experimental animals. On the fifteenth day little red spots appeared on the mucous membrane.

It also proved possible to convey the disease hy means of blood and filtered blood serum. Adult animals were more difficult to inoculate than young ones. The experimenters proved that the disease could be spon-