418 BACTERIA OF THE SPUTA 



the iodine solution (simple or acidulated), but distinct enough in 

 gentian violet. For this kind of stalks we refer to the preceding 

 memoir. Then is it not strange that these fertile filaments should 

 be so slender, whilst the severed or truncated {^Bacillus buccalis 

 maximiis and Leptothrix buccalis fiiaxima of Miller) appear much 

 thicker and with a strong iodine reaction. We attributed this 

 thickness, or woody state, to the retrocession of the germinal 

 matter, somewhat analogous to the action of the saps in pruning- 

 plants. Our parasite, being a vegetable, or rather a tiny plant, 

 and having to be studied as such, according to Dallinger,* it is 

 natural that the form of its stem should resemble that of the cone. 

 The stalk being, in fact, the proper organ of vegetation, destined 

 to support the upper organs, it is natural that the lower part 

 should be stronger and that it should get thinner towards the top, 

 which, finally, must bear the fruits. It is identical with the 

 process of other plants. 



However, whilst this is the general rule, we shall see, as we 

 proceed, that certain fertile filaments become rather an exception, 

 thinning themselves similarly on the top ; but afterwards, on 

 reaching the base of the future fructification, they thicken in the 

 shape of a cylindrical club, colouring brilliantly with aniline, but 

 pale like the rest in iodine solution. We shall speak later on of 

 the probable meaning of this swelling of the stalk, recalling only 

 on this subject the other apical swellings, already mentioned and 

 delineated in the preceding Memoir (Fig. 9, b, c). 



To this first element (the internal stem) follows in order of 

 formation the second, of peduncles or ingrafting threads, destined 

 to bear the spores, like the sterigmata of many fungi. Such 

 peduncles are very pale, invisible with less powerful objectives, but 

 very distinctly observable (under certain conditions) with the 

 1/2 5th power just mentioned. They are short, funnel-shaped, 

 with a point on the stalk and the opening towards the spore. In 

 the young ears, being yet deficient or scanty in the secretion of 

 the viscid substance, the peduncles are more visible ; whilst in 

 the older ones they remain more or less opaque. 



* Dallinger, TJie Microscopical Organisms atid their Relations to Disease 

 (Journal R. M.S., i88s). 



