242 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



"A sample of cottage cheese to which was attributed the serious ill- 

 ness of several people was examined for B. hoiulinus; also feeding experi- 

 ments were performed with it. The animals fed did not become sick, but 

 after considerable difficulty and delay an organism resembling B. hotulinus 

 morphologically and culturally was isolated from the cheese. Its toxin 

 production has not been determined. 



"March 22, 1918, five cultures of B. hotulinus were added to No. 2, 

 cans of asparagus, string beans, beets, carrots, corn, peas, and tomatoes 

 which were then sealed and heated in the hot water bath for the time pre- 

 scribed for processing each product in the U. S. Dept. of Agriculture re- 

 cipes. In July 1918, these were opened, shake cultures were made of each 

 into gelatin agar and resealed but not reheated. These cultures were 

 examined from time to time for evidences of growth and presence of B. 

 hotulinus. In only 5 out of the total of 31 cans inoculated was growth 

 absent. B. hotulinus was not observed in the culture from any can. 

 Seven months after the cans were opened (11 months after they were 

 inoculated and heated) fiye cans showed evidences of either a swell, leak, 

 or swell and leak combined, three of peas, and one each of carrots, and 

 beets. Microscopic examination of the juice from these cans showed a 

 few very poorly staining rods in the beets, long-chained streptococci and a 

 few rods in the carrots, cocci in one can of peas, rods in the other two. In 

 one can of peas these rods contained polar spores resembling B. hotulinus 

 very closely. Subcultures from each can into a medium favoring B. 

 hotulinus showed nothing with four of the cans. The remaining one which 

 proved to be the one typical microscopically was found to contain B. 

 hotulinus in a living condition.. 



"An article by Bovie and Bronfenbrenner* contains a graph which 

 explains why resistant spore-forming organisms survive the processing in 

 canning. The middle of the can contents reaches the maximum tem- 

 perature but for a few minutes. 



:^ ^ ^ ^ ^ 



"Miss Ruth Normington, a graduate student assistant in this depart- 

 ment has been working largely under my direction this past year and 

 has just completed a most satisfactory master's thesis entitled, 'Studies 

 in the Heat Resistant Organisms of Cold Packed Canned Peas'. This will 

 ))e published in the near future. 



"The Journal of Bacteriology is publishing an article ])y myself and 

 Ruth Normington entitled, 'The influence of Various Chemical and Physi- 

 cal Agencies upon Bacillus hotulinus and its spores. I. Resistance to Salt.' 



"At .the 1919 meeting of the Michigan Academy of Science an article 

 was read entitled 'The Relation of B. hotulinus to certain phases of home 

 economics and agriculture'. This will be published in the annual report 

 of this society. 



"Eleven samples of silage, one of hay and one of dry stock food which 

 had caused forage poisoning in live stock were sent to this laboratory for 

 analysis. Six samples of silage representing silage from all but one source 



•W. T. Bovie and J. Bronfenbrener, Studies on Canning. An Apparatus for Measuring the Rate of Heat Penetration, Juor. 

 Ind, & Eng. Chew, Vol. 11, No, 6, June J919, pp. 568-570. 



