Those who have studied the literature ofBacillus coliinfections of the urinary tract, over a period of many years, must be fully conscious that the methods employed in such investigations have been on very similar lines. Bacilli isolated from the urine have been classified on the result of various cultural reactions of which the fermentation of cane sugar anddulcitol appears to occupy the most important position. Animals have been inoculated with various strains of urinary coli, while similar inoculation experiments have been made on animals before and after a mechanical injury to one or both kidneys had been produced.

(1) Two types of B. coli are met with in urinary infections-haemolytic and non-haemolytic. Haemolytic colon bacilli are much commoner in infections in the male (72 per cent.) and non-haemolytic in the female (70 percent).(2) It was very uncommon to obtain both these types of colon bacilli associated in any particular case, or for a haemolytic infection to be followed by a non-haemolytic, or vice versa.(3) No evidence was obtained of direct relationship between the urinary haemolytic colon bacilli and those of the intestinal tract.(4) The haemolytic urinary colon bacilli were readily grouped by appropriate colon anti-sera, but this result was much less common with the non-haemolytic strains.(5) Culture media, in our experience, were of little value in the grouping of colon bacilli.(6) A haemolytic colon bacillus has not been cultivated by us from the blood stream in the human subject.(7) Two cases of acute infection were met with, caused by strongly haemolytic, but atypical, colon bacilli.(8) The blood sera from “normal” cases and from coli infections were tested for the presence of coli agglutinins. Several coli antigens were employed. A very much higher percentage of positive findings were obtained with coli cases.(9) Living colon bacilli, haemolytic and non-haemolytic, can be inoculated into rabbits in small or massive doses without serious ill-effect-in fact these animals have a remarkable tolerance for these organisms. No marked anaemia was produced by the injection of living or dead bacilli or filtered broth cultures. Agglutinins and precipitins were rapidly formed with the haemolytic strains.(10) Eenal infections in rabbits were not obtained by the injection intravenously of various strains of urinary and faecal colon bacilli.(11) Saturation agglutinin experiments showed in the majority of instances that colon anti-sera, made from non-haemolytic strains, are not desaturated by non-haemolytic colon bacilli other than autogenous strains, while with the urinary haemolytic colon anti-sera and haemolytic colon bacilli a much wider range of action is obtained.(12) Precipitins and complement fixation reactions were readily obtained with coli rabbit anti-sera and filtered beef broth coli cultures.(13) The action of No. 220 soluble mercurochrome was investigated in the treatment of coli infections of the urinary tract. This substance was found to be of definite therapeutic value, especially when employed in conjunction with vaccine therapy.

PROFESSOR L. S. DUDGEON, wheni consulting bacteriologist to the Forces in the Balkans during the late war, had tried the effect of drying the stools of suspected dysentery patients on some porous material so as to leave only the Imiucus. In bacillary cases he found that a more abundant growth of dysentery bacilli was obtained from the dried mucus than from the untreated specinen, so that the drying had no harmful effect on the organisms. He used for this purpose unglazed red tiles such as were to be found locally, and suggested that the inethod should be given a more thorough trial with a more satisfactory type of tile made in this country. With this view the following experiments were inade. DUDGEON'S METHOD.A portion of the faeces, about a small teaspoonful, is evenly spread over a porous tile resting on an asbestos mat and allowed to dry for from 30 minutes to two hours, at room tenmperature, according to the amount of water or mucus in the specimen. When the faeces are dried to a stiff paste, this is scraped off and evenly spread on a second tile and allowed to dry for a further one to two hours or until it has become a fine dry powder when scraped off. A quantity of this dry powder is transferred to a plate, and evenly spread over the surface with a glass spreader. If the faeces are liquid, as much as possible should be poured on the first tile short of letting it run over the edge. By using two tiles one after the other, it will be found that however liquid the faeces are, or however much mucus is present, complete drying can be obtained. It is important, in order to get the best results, that the material should be coinpletely dried on the second tile before plating, and when scraped off, be in the form of a sand-like powder, with no trace of stickiness.By this method excellent separation of individual colonies is obtainied over the whole surface of the plate with no tendency to run together so that suspicious colonies can be picked off with ease. It is quick, and since it is equally 1 Thie expenses of this investigation were defrayed by a special grant fiom Mr Louis Oppenheimer to whom I a.m greatly indebted.

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