CURRENT TOPICS

, , Vle. two distinguished authors are well known from neir investigations on the bacteriology of tuberculosis carried out at the Pasteur Institute, Paris, in the aboratories which until a few years ago were directed by the late Prof. Calmette, whose name is associated with the B.C.G. vaccine. As the two papers deal with the same subject and neir points of view largely coincide, it may suffice to them together. Whereas Boquet's paper reviews ne held of recent work regarding the virulence of ubercle bacilli, A. Saenz presents, his latest investigations. As the conclusions of the authors for a great deal are based upon these findings, a brief account may be given. In order to elucidate whether different forms of c lnical tuberculosis can be related to certain types of irulence, thirty-two strains from human tuberculous esions were examined, some were derived from internal ci (sputum, spinal-fluid, pleural effusions, stomachash, pus urine), others from superficial lesions such as uberculoids of the skin (apart from lupus vulgaris), e patients representing active as well as inactive orms of tuberculosis. The virulence was determined by subcutaneous inoculation into guinea-pigs of