COMPARISON OF BACILLUS COLT WITH VARIOUS ORGANISMS. 145 



Besides coconut B, the organisms called coconut D and F responded 

 to the same tests. Moreover, coconut V, AA, BB, and CC, were the 

 same, excepting that there are no records for glycerin and mannit. 

 In addition to these tests, the various organisms were grown in gelatin 

 tubes, and all of the above, with the addition of 15 others, failed to 

 liquefy the gelatin. All of these cultures were grouTi in litmus 

 milk, and these same strains with some others reddened the litmus 

 and coagulated the milk. 



All of the cultures were grown in Dunham's solution and tested 

 for indol after five days. All of the strains indicated above produced 

 indoi, B best of all. 



The similarity of these organisms in the media used mth the 

 coconut organism and Bacillus coli is very suggestive of the identity 

 of all. 



Of further interest in the comparison of various cultures is the 

 fact that Mr. James B. Rorer has sent to the wi'iter some cultures of 

 organisms isolated by him from diseased coconut palms in Trinidad. 

 These five cultures in litmus milk and in nitrate bouillon are all 

 alike and give the same reaction as the coconut organism, isolated 

 from Cuba, or Bacillus coli. They difi'er, however, in gelatin. This 

 variation seems at once sufficient to consider the organism a different 

 species, but whether the Trinidad form is not a variety of the Cuban 

 organism may well be questioned. It has been noted on a previous 

 page that many of the cultures of 505 R (e. g., coconut No. 1) differed 

 from the others mainly in liquefying gelatin, while Bacillus coli 

 does not. It will be noted that the failure to liquef}^ gelatin is the 

 main* difference (at least so far as the arbitrary relationship shown in 

 the chart of the Society of American Bacteriologists goes) between 

 Bacillus coli and the soft-rot organism, as sho^\^l in the work of 

 Jones, Harding, and Morse. ^ Other differences depend largely upon 

 the ability of the varieties of soft-rot organisms to form acid and gas 

 in media containing carbohydrates. But this is a variation found 

 also in so-called varieties of Bacillus coli. The organism isolated 

 by Mr. Rorer appears then to belong rather to the well-known soft- 

 rot types. May it not well be that as there is a variation in pro- 

 duction of acid and gas in media containing dextrose, lactose, 

 saccharose, glycerin, and other carbon compounds, both in the case 

 of varieties of the soft rot and in varieties of Bacillus coli, there mav 

 also be a variation in the production of a proteolytic enzyme as dem- 

 onstrated in the liquefaction or nonliquefaction of gelatin ? It has 

 not yet been shown how this can be other than an arbitrary separa- 

 tion of the two groups. Bacillus coli, so far as known, is not able 



1 Jonos, L. R., Harding, II. A., and Morse, W. J. The Bacterial Soft Rots of Certain Vegetables, 

 Technical Bulletin 11, N. Y. Agricultural Experiment Station, November, 1909, p. 264. 



6389°— Bul. 228—12 10 



