180 BACTERIA IN THE SPUTA 



But, leaving for the present those complex questions, I will 

 proceed to speak of the morphology and biology of Leptothrix.-'' 



§ IV. 



REMARKS ON THE MORPHOLOGY AND BIOLOGY OF 

 THE LEPTOTHRIX BUCCALIS. 



The Four Phases of Leptothrix and particularly the 

 Fructifications by Ears (Spic^). 



First Phase. — The first phase of the Leptothrix is that of 

 a Bacterium or Bacillus, already described in the Memoir on 

 Whooping-cough and in the first paragraph of the present one. 

 This phase is common to all the other species of bacteria, but 

 which (at least in Leptothrix^ does not represent its whole cycle of 

 life, but only its primordial stage of immersed vegetation, or a 

 vegetation destined to propagate in liquid or semi-solid substrata 

 (media). 



Second Phase. — Examining the cuticle of the tongue, stained 

 with gentian violet, we find there by preference the forms of the 

 second stage of life of this parasite — namely, that of chains, 

 bundles, and masses of intertwined filaments. We have already 

 said that in these preparations the buccal epithelia predominate ; 

 isolated filaments are found there, as well as many specimens of 

 large dumb-bell bacteria of the type/./, and/' (Fig. 2), and con- 

 spicuous masses of diplococci. These preparations show that the 

 large dumb-bell bacteria are derived from the diplococci, the two 

 original cocci linking together. The degrees of transition to be 

 observed there are many. The same chains are often surrounded 



* Two fresh works were lately published on this argument : one by David 

 ( Les Microbes de la bouche, precede d'une letire-preface de M. L. Pasteur), 

 a simple compilation ; the other by Billet ( Contributioi a delude de la 

 Morphologie et du developpeiiient des bacteriacees), the result of original re- 

 searches on the natural history of four species of micro-organisms {Cladolhrix 

 dichoto/na, Bacterium Balbiani, Bacterium osieophihun, and Leptothrix para- 

 sitica, a parasite of sea-weeds). We shall notice these works later on ; we may 

 at once say that not even these authors hint in the least to the SUPERIOR 

 PHASES of Leptothrix buccalis, after our type or other's. 



