BY R. GREIG SMITH. 



229 



The solids of the slime. — Believing that the amount of solid 

 matter in the slimes might vary considerably and thus account 

 for some of the discrepancies in the experiments, I determined 

 the percentage of water in the slimes obtained from a tempera- 

 ture experiment. 



The Water Content of the Slime. 



Incubation temperature. 



Total Slime from 



20 c.c. of medium, 



srrams. 



Water in 

 Slime X. 



14-15* 



22* (cluplicate) 

 30" 



4-2 



8-6 

 3-6 

 1-0 



96-8 

 97-2 

 97-2 

 96-4 



These figures show that the percentage of water in the slime 

 is very constant, and that a smaller yield of slime does not 

 necessarily involve a higher percentage of dry matter. 



The influence of asparacji7ie. — Early in the research the effect 

 of varying percentages of different nitrogenous nutrients was 

 tested in a saccharose medium, but as this was contained in tubes 

 only general conclusions could be drawn from the growths upon 

 the sloped agar surfaces. Asparagine and urea produced a fair 

 amount, peptone gave only traces, while the bacterium did not 

 form slime in the presence of ammonium and potassium nitrates. 



At a later period the influence of asparagine was quantita- 

 tively determined with the following results : — 

 The Influence of Aspaeagine. 



Levulose 2, comm. tannin O'l, potassium citrate O'l, agar 2, water 100 grms. 



