128 HISTORY AND CAUSE OF THE COCONUT BUD-EOT. 



showed in tubes from two of the Bacillus coli plates, in tubes from 

 three of the plates of coconut inoculation No. 3, and in one of the 

 plates from coconut inoculation No. 4. 



Before the nitrate tubes were used for the test transfers were made 

 to beef bouillon and subsequently transfers from these were made 

 to litmus milk. In two days each of the litmus-milk tubes, from 

 nitrate tubes that had responded to the reduction test, showed the 

 typical reddening of the litmus and coagulation of the milk that is 

 found in the coconut organism and in Bacillus coli. 



The tests for these organisms were not carried out further, it being 

 considered that the typical reaction found in the litmus-lactose- 

 glycerin agar, in the nitrate bouillon, and in litmus milk were suffi- 

 cient for identification. 



The only further means of identification was to make transfers 

 from the original bouillon which contained the diseased matter 

 directly to various media without the preliminary plating out of 

 individual colonies. In this way transfers were made to litmus 

 milk, in which case all but one of the tubes reddened and coagulated 

 the inilk; to beef agar containing neutral red, in which case all the 

 tubes produced gas and turned the color of the medium to a canary 

 yellow at the base; and to litmus-lactose-glycerin agar, in which 

 good pink colonics were formed, as in Bacillus coli and the coconut 

 organism, and the agar was entirely reddened. These tests were 

 considered sufficient to indicate that the same organisms were to be 

 found in the diseased material as were originally injected into the 

 healthy tissues. It appears from this that not only the coconut 

 organism but also Bacillus coli (from animals) is capable of producing 

 a destruction of the heart tissues of the coconut plant. Although 

 this was not altogether a surprise after making the extensive com- 

 parison of the two organisms that has been described on previous 

 pages and the close similarity of the organisms that has been sho\vn, 

 yet the fact that Bacillus coli or any bacterial organism tliat is com- 

 monly associated with animal life is capable of producing a plant 

 disease was so unexpected that further confirmation was thought 

 desirable. The one inoculation of Bacillus coli described in this 

 experiment, while on the face of it appearing to have all the points 

 necessary for verification, yet demands several repetitions before it 

 can be accepted as an incontrovertible fact. To this end further 

 inoculations were carried out. 



Experiment No. 2. 



Along with the otlier inoculations just described as being made 

 on February 17 a second injection of Bacillus coli (derived from 

 animals) was made into a coconut seedhng and likewise another 



228 



