BY R. GKEIG SMITH. 145 



and 0*9 : 3 /x. The bcacterium was motile, the motility being pro- 

 duced by single terminal or b}^ many peritrichous flagella; up to 

 five were observed. On nutrient agar, the stroke was narrow, white, 

 raised and lumpy, becoming dry and rough from the formation 

 of small, lateral folds. Upon glucose-gelatine, the stroke spread 

 laterally as a broad, corrugated, white, moist-glistening growth 

 with an amoeboid tendency. The culture spread over the greater 

 part of the slope, and in time became depressed and finally 

 liquefied the medium. The stab in the same medium grew in a 

 pronounced tubercular fashion, the lateral outgrowths measuring 

 up to 3 mm. The nail-head spread over the whole surface as a 

 depressed, corrugated, white film which was partly rough and 

 partly glistening. A stratiform liquefaction eventually set in. 

 Bouillon developed a strong white film and became turbid, with 

 a white sediment. The indol reaction w^as obtained and nitrates 

 were reduced to nitrites. Upon potato the growth was dry and 

 scanty, in colour dirty-white. Milk was slowly made viscous. 

 A thick transparent slime was formed on levulose-asparagine- 

 tannin-agar. The colonies on glucose-gelatine were waxy-white 

 and either rounded or amoeboid. The centre of the colony was 

 raised, then looking towards the periphery came a depression, 

 then a corrugated circle, and finally a smooth margin. The con- 

 sistency was viscous. Microscopically, the centre appeared 

 indefinite, then came a circle with dark spots, then a granular 

 margin with radial markings. By the fourteenth day, the margin 

 of the colony, and especially the amoeboid outgrowths, showed a 

 patchy structure as if the granules had collected in heaps, leaving 

 clear spaces intervening. 



There seemed to be little similarity between this organism and 

 Bad. metarahiniim, either the normal race or the race already 

 described in this paper. The slime grew well on saccharose- 

 potato-agar without tannin, and although rather stijff it could be 

 removed without disturbing the agar surface. After being con- 

 verted into the soluble form by the autoclave treatment, the gum 

 behaved to reagents like arabin. Dehydration did not make it 

 insoluble as in the case of metarabin; it dissolved in water, form- 

 10 



