ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 231 



Schizophyta. 

 Schizomycetes. 



Identity of Loeffler's Bacillus typhosus murium with the Bacillus 

 paratyphosus " B." * — Bonhoff considers that the Bacillus typhosus 

 murium of Loeffler, the B. enteriditis of Gaertner, and the B. paratyphosus 

 "Z>," are to he differentiated neither biologically nor by their agglutina- 

 ting and bacteriolytic reactions, but there exist certain differences of 

 pathogenic properties, the exact nature of which have, as yet, not been 

 explained. However, the three organisms belong to one group, and are 

 far more nearly related to each other than the B. paratyphosus " B " is 

 to the B. paratyphosus " A," to which latter organism he suggests the 

 name paratyphosus should be restricted. 



Red String of the Sugar Cane.f— R. Greig Smith examined an 

 example of red string in an apparently healthy cane which had only two 

 or three coloured bundles in cross section. Portions of the red strings 

 were cut out with a sterile knife and inserted into tubes of molten 

 glucose-gelatin, which after standing for an hour or two at 30° C. were 

 poured into Petri dishes. He obtained a mould which produced a bril- 

 liant crimson scarlet colour, and was primarily responsible for the colour 

 of the strings, and also several bacteria. From the presence of gum in 

 the vessels he was of opinion that the mould was accompanied by a slime 

 bacterium, and that the complete phenomenon of red gum was brought 

 about by the simultaneous growth of two organisms, a mould and a 

 bacterium. Of the bacteria isolated, one was a slime bacterium, another 

 was B. sacchari, and a third was B. fluoresceins liquefacisns. To test 

 which of these would produce a crimson colour when grown in combina- 

 tion with the mould, he planted a fragment of the mould upon the centre 

 of a plate of nutrient la3Vulose agar, on which medium it only produced a 

 trace of colour. "When the mould had grown outwards as a zonate white 

 pile of about ?> c.cm. diameter, the bacteria were infected at three places 

 equidistant from the centre. In three days giant colonies had formed 

 at the points of infection, while the mould had spread towards them. 

 As the mould touched the white slime bacterial colony, a brilliant 

 crimson colour developed not only throughout the colony but in the 

 neighbouring medium." The B. sacchari developed a foxy red colour, 

 but the mould refused to grow towards the colony of B. fluoresceins 

 liquefaciens. This experiment showed that the white slime bacterium 

 could be of service to the mould in producing the colour of the crimson 

 red gum in the vessel of the cane. The bacterium grew as a white 

 slime on sterile sugar cane, and the mould grown on the same medium 

 produced " practically " no colour. When both bacterium and mould 

 were grown together, a deep crimson colour was developed. He found 

 the gum to be a galactan, giving the chemical reactions of arabin ; he 

 named the bacterium B. pseitdarabinus. It is an actively motile cocco- 

 bacillus, with numerous flagella ; it stains readily, but not by Gram's 



* (entralbl. Bakt.. Ref. 1«« Abt., xxxv.(]fK)4) p. 763. 

 t Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W.. 1H04, j.j>. 44it-f>9. 



