On a colourless bacterium, whose carbon-food 

 comes from the atmosphere. 



By M. W. BEIJERINCK and A. VAN DELDEN. 



Proceedings of the Section of Sciences, Kon. Akademie van Wetenschappen, Amster- 

 dam, Vol. V, 1903, p. 398413. Verscheen onder den titel Over een kleurlooze 

 bacterie, waarvan het koolstofvoedsel uit de lucht komt in Verslagen Kon. Akademie 

 van Wetenschappen, Wis-en Natuurk. Afd., Amsterdam, Deel XI, 1903, biz. 450 465; 

 en onder den titel Ueber eine farblose Bakterie, deren Kohlenstoffnahrung aus der 

 atmospharischen Luft herruhrt in Centralblatt fur Bakteriologie und Parasitenkunde, 



Jena, II. Abteilung, X. Band, 1903, S. 33 47. 



We give the name of Bacillus oligocarbophilus 1 ) to a colourless bacterium, 

 whose carbon nutrition in the dark (and likewise in the light), takes place at 

 the expense of a not yet well-known atmospheric carbon compound (or compounds), 

 from which the energy, wanted for the vital processes, is also derived 2 ). 



The culture of this bacterium on solid media or in nutrient solutions, containing 

 soluble organic substances has not yet succeeded, which may, of course, have been 

 caused by an erroneous choice of these substances. On the other hand, pure cultures 

 on solid and in liquid substrata, without soluble carbon compounds, are easy to be 

 made. 



') It is probable that W. Heraeus (Ueber das Verhalten der Bacterien in Brunnen- 

 wasser sowie uber reducirende und oxydirende Eigenschaften der Bacterien. Zeitschrift 

 f. Hygiene, Bd. I, pag. 226) already in 1886, has had cultures of B. oligocarbophilus 

 before him. He says the following: .... Ausserordentlich auffallend war das Ergeb- 

 niss dieser Versuche in der Hinsicht, dass eine Vermehrung der Bacterien in einer 

 Fliissigkeit eingetreten war, welche keine organische Verbindungen sondern nur Salze 

 enthielt. Ein unansehnliches, kaum sichtbares Piinktchen von Bacterienzoogloeen hatte 

 sich im Verlaufe von zehn Tagen so stark vermehrt, dass die ganze Oberflache der 

 Losung von einer dicken Haut bedeckt war. Analytical results are not given, and the 

 remark makes the impression of being accidental and is lost among insignificant ob- 

 servations. - Wino gradsky' s statement, concerning the accumulation of organic 

 carbon in nitrifying solutions, evidently refers likewise to this microbe, but his de- 

 scription suffers of indistinctness (Annales de 1'Institut Pasteur, T. 4 pg. 270 et 462, 

 1891). - In the experiments of Godlewski (Bulletin international de TAcademie d. 

 sc. de Cracovie, Dec. 1892 pag. 408 et Juin 1895 pag. 178), the vanished CO 2 is not, 

 as he thinks, absorbed by the ferments of nitrification but by the Mg O . Mg CO 8 . 



2 ) We also found another, rarer species, belonging to the genus Streptothrix Cohn, 

 with corresponding properties. It will not however, be further discussed here. 



