BY OSCAR KATZ, PH.D., M.A. 921 



On gelatine- plates. This bacillus came under notice only 

 a few times, and in few colonies. There is in the gelatine a 

 watch-glass-like excavation, with perfectly circular circumference, 

 and tilled with turbid, liquefied gelatine, in which the colony 

 (PI. XI, fig. 4, d) is seen to consist of a central part of peculiar 

 flocky, or sponge-like contents, and surrounding it a zone in which 

 there are visible only small particles or granules, amidst the 

 greyish, turbid gelatine-liquid. The spreading of the colonies, or 

 what is the same, the liquefaction of gelatine takes place at a very 

 rapid rate. 



If, starting from such colonies, a fresh gelatine-plate is made, 

 one finds very soon colonies of from -05--3 mm. in diameter. The 

 superficial ones differ from the interior ones in that they are larger 

 and already exhibit liquefaction of the gelatine, consisting of 

 minute funnel-shaped openings in the latter. All the colonies, 

 notably the deeper ones, are echinate in their appearance, in so far 

 as from a central, on the whole circular mass (optical section) of 

 more or less grey colour (transmitted light), there issue in different 

 directions, more or less elongated, spine-or rod-like processes which 

 represent a rather dense zone or girdle. A little below the surface 

 of the gelatine the colonies sometimes give off small tuft-like off- 

 shoots towards the surface of the gelatine. The quite superficial 

 colonies are light-grey translucent. 



In nutrient-gelatine in a test-tube the bacillus forms, at first 

 liquefying the gelatine, a growth of the shape of an inverted elon- 

 gated cone, that rapidly advances. At last there is a dense and 

 thick deposit at the bottom of a columnar mass, consisting of 

 turbid, liquid gelatine. I did not see the liquefaction go down 

 entirely to the bottom of the test-tube, so that here part of the 

 solid gelatine remained unaltered. 



On an oblique surface of agar-agar it forms a quickly spreading 

 compact, greyish-white, superficial layer, with its surface somewhat 

 wrinkled, also here and there showing thin and pretty high 

 folds, which extend more or less horizontally from the edges 

 towards the middle of the growth. The marginal parts of the 

 latter are curved and undulatory ; the contours themselves are 

 pretty smooth. 



