342 A SLIME BACTERll'M FROM THE PEACH, ETC.. 



usually occupied in hydrolysis. I have tested the hydrolysed 

 products of a glucose-pelding slime grown upon agar and have 

 failed to detect arabinose. The probability of the agar contri- 

 buting to the products of the hydrolysis of this slime is therefore 

 remote. 



The slime can also be obtained, though in comparatively small 

 quantity, by growing the bacterium in fluid media containing 

 saccharose. A solution containing saccharose 50, peptone 2, 

 ammonium chloride 1, potassium phosphate 1, magnesium sul- 

 phate 0-5, chalk 10, and water 1000 was prepared, and after 

 sterilisation and infection with the organism, it was kept at the 

 laboratory tem[>erature (22-25°). In 10 days the medium had 

 become ropy and had the consistency of white of egg. The 

 opalescent, supernatant liquid which strongly red\wed Fehling's 

 solution, showing the presence of invertase, was decanted from 

 the sediment, tested with a few drops of hydrochloric acid and 

 finally coagulated with alcohol. A springy coagnlum which 

 rapidly collected round the stirring rod and a slow settling fioccu- 

 lent precipitate were formed. The coagulum was separated from 

 the flocculent precipitate and both were repeatedly treated with 

 water and with alcohol until the sugars had been eliminatecL 

 The characters of the alcoholic precipitates were maintained 

 throughout these operations, and upon treating the precipitates 

 with water a gummy solution and an insoluble swollen portion 

 was always obtained. The soluble gum of both portions behaved 

 similarly in being coagulated with or precipitated by the basic 

 and neutral acetates of lead, baryta water and mDk of lime, so 

 that the gums were apparently identical. There was a difference 

 in the viscosity of the solutions; that obtained from the coagulum 

 was always more viscous than that obtained from the flocculent 

 precipitate. In spite of this the amounts of the precipitates 

 formed upon the addition of the reagents were greater in the 

 solution from the flocculent precipitate than in the solution from 

 the coagulum. The increased Wscosity of the solution which 

 appeared to contain more gum was probably due to the presence 

 of a greater quantity of the albuminoid products of the bacteria. 



