24 MEMOIRS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



Bacillus Vieidescens Liqttefaciens. 



Found in meadow soil at a depth of 30 inches. 



Character. — Requires oxygen for its full development, though some growth occurs in an 

 atmosphere of hydrogen. 



Morphology. — Small, straight rods, with rounded ends, from three to five times as long as 

 broad. Occurs singly. 



Spores are not formed until about the tenth day. They are small ovals and formed in the 

 center of the rods. 



Motility. — Active movements. 



Flagella situated at the poles. 



Colonies on gelatin plates.— Colonies seen at the end of twelve hours as minute whitish dors, 

 with a bluish cast, x SO. They are translucent disks, looking like drops of moisture, with even 

 edges. At twenty hours they are more white and the largest one-half of a millimeter in diameter, 

 and each one is already beginning to form a saucer of liquefaction, x 80. Both deep and 

 surface colonies appear as grayish, granular disks, with well defined but irregular margins. On 

 the surface the margins are soon lost, and the colony appears as a mass of fine wavy lines, 

 twisted and curled. The central portion is made up of cloudy masses of a grayish hue. Some of 

 the deep colonies have a lobed appearance, the center appearing as if higher than the edges, which 

 have a fissured look. Liquefaction proceeds very rapidly, and the colonies lose any characteristic 

 form very soon. 



Agar slant. — A smooth, elevated, greenish-white band, spreading widely at the bottom, is 

 formed by the second day. At 35° to 30° C. the agar is largely covered in twenty hours, and 

 has already acquired a green tint, which only comes at room temperature about the third day. 

 The growth spreads from the edges in a very thin layer with uneven margins, and becomes a 

 beautiful yellowish green. It is white in the water at the bottom. 



Gelatin stab. — Good growth is. seen down the puncture in twenty-four hours, and at the 

 surface a funnel of liquefaction has formed, whitish fiocculi sinking to the bottom. By the third 

 day the liquefaction has reached a depth of 1 cm., measured at the tube wall, the floor becoming 

 less funnel shaped. By the fourth day more than two thirds of the gelatin has been liquefied. 

 The floor becomes level after a few days more and covered with white flocculi. The process seems 

 to stop, or else proceeds very slowly. The liquefied gelatin does not become green. 



Potato. — An abundant yellowish growth, spreading to the walls of the tube where moist, is 

 seen on the second day. It is moist and shining, not very thick. After five or six days it becomes 

 a brownish color. 



Bouillon. — Diffuse cloudiness on second day. Green tint is caused near the surface by the 

 end of the third day, and soon the whole of the liquid becomes green. On the bottom of the tube 

 an abundant white deposit collects. 



Eosolie avid. — A thin film forms on the surface, but no change in color is caused. 



Litmus mill-. — Reddish tinge appears in forty-eight hours, but no coagulation of the casein is 

 observed. A scum forms on the surface and a whitish deposit at the bottom. After some days 

 the milk becomes watery, apparently from digestion of the casein. 



Sugar gelatin, deep stah. — Grows to bottom of puncture and causes rapid liquefaction. No 

 gas produced. 



Indol. — Reaction negative. On boiling after the addition of sulphuric acid and sodium nitrite 

 an odor like skatol is produced. 



Relation to temperature. — More rapid at 35° to 30° C. 



Note. — This bacillus resembles the Fluoresccns liqttefaciens very closely, and may be identical 

 with it. The chief difference noted, as far as the published descriptions go, is in the production 

 of spores. No culture of the bacillus F. Uquefaciens was at hand with which it could be compared. 



Bacillus Ramosus. 



Synonyms: Bacillus Mycoides (Fliiggo). Root form bacillus (Frankel) ; Wurtzel bacillus. 



Character. — Aerobe. Found constantly in both made and virgin soils, both near the surface 

 and at a considerable depth. 



