176 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Some months later a second sample of pepsin from the same company was 

 examined. The company stated that they had been trying out new methods 

 of manufacture. This sample was a spongy scale pepsin of 1-10,000 strength. 

 It had a salty, not unpleasant taste and lacked the decomposing animal 

 odor of the previous sample. This sample when plated gave a count of 

 1,830,000 bacterial colonies per gram and the culture plates smelled strongly 

 of ammonia and putrid animal matter. The following cultures were isolated 

 from these plates : 



D. A. — A soft, round, large, nearly white glistening, surface colony, many 

 colonies on plate consisting of large rods in chains with square ends. Spores 

 not observed. 



D. B. — A small, opaque, irregular, sub-surface colony, many on plates. 

 Smaller, more slender rod than D. A. No spores seen. 



D. C. — A small, j^ellow, lens-shaped, sub-surface colony numerous on 

 plates. A mixture of short and long rods. Nearly round free spores observed. 



When these cultures were inoculated into sterile beef infusion alone and 

 in combinations all flasks had the putrefying odor except the one with D. C. 

 alone. 



Later two other samples of pepsin were received from the company and 

 examined for their bacterial counts. Spongy Granular Pepsin No. 123 con- 

 tained 1,300 bacterial colonies per gram and Rx 10,364 contained 2,800 

 bacterial colonies per gram. No bacteria were seen in smears made from 

 either of these pepsins. Both had a salty, slightly acidulous taste but no 

 bad odor or taste. The following cultures were isolated: 



Sj). A. — (From Spongy Granular Pepsin No. 123.) A large, irregular, 

 wrinkled, white, surface colony. Predominant flora. A large spore-bearing 

 rod. The plates seemed to be seeded with practically pure cultures of this 

 organism. 



Pv. A. — A small lens- shaped sub-surface nearly white colony. Numerous 

 on plates. Consisted of very small rods — no spores observed. 



Pv. B. — A large, nearly round, white, soft colony. Not numerous. A 

 large rod with cylindrical spores which were shorter but thicker than sporangia. 



Pv. C. — A large, irregular, white, wrinkled, tough surface colony. Not 

 numerous on plates. Shorter, fatter rods than Pv. B., but with spores of 

 same shape and size. Sporangia club shaped with spores deeply imbedded. 

 Sporangia larger than rods in some cases. 



Pv. D. — Small, round, white surface colony. Numerous on plates. A 

 large rod — no spores observed. 



In the letter accompanying these two samples there was a request that we 

 state whether the organisms contained in the pe*psin were capable of pro- 

 ducing tyrosin from proteid material. They had had considerable ty rosin 

 formed in the process of manufacture and wished to find the cause of its 

 formation. 



In order to test this point, the organisms previously fished were inoculated 

 into sterile skim milk and incubated for 14 days at room temperature. Pep- 

 tonization was noted and is recorded below by plus and minus signs, four plus 

 being practically complete peptonization, three plus, two plus and one plus 

 being various degrees of peptonization, while niinus means that no pepto- 

 nization was observed. 



