BACTERIA IN DECOMPOSING SALMON 89 



of Actinomyces. Culture 351a was isolated from the flesh of the 

 back of a decomposing salmon and 366 was obtained from the 

 intestines of a salmon. Cultures 451, 459„ and 480 were isolated 

 from canneries in Ketchikan, ^Vlaska, and 470„ was obtained 

 from the cannery at Yes Bay, Alaska. Of the 79 cultures de- 

 scribed in tables 2 to 9, 72 are rod-shaped organisms without 

 spores, 3 are spore-forming rods and 4 are streptococci. 



In studying these bacteria but little attempt has been made to 

 identify as specific organisms any except the lactose fermenting 

 organisms and the fluorescent bacteria. The attempt has been 

 rather to determine what relation, if any, exists between the 

 sea-water flora and the flora from decomposing salmon and from 

 the canneries. The extensive work done by several groups of 

 investigators, notably Winslow, Kligler and Rothberg (1919) 

 and Levine (1918), make it possible to identify members of the 

 colon-aerogenes group and, as far as possible, the lactose fer- 

 menting bacteria in this collection have been identified. The 

 descriptions of fluorescent bacteria given by Edson and Carpenter 

 (1912) and by Tanner (1918) also make it possible to identify 

 bacteria of this group. The inadequate descriptions of non- 

 fermenting, asporogenous, gelatin liquefj'ing and non-liquefying 

 bacteria given in the literature, if they are given at all, make it 

 very difficult to identify organisms of this kind. 



Examination of table 2 shows that of the 9 gelatin liquefying 

 cultures from sea-water 1 is Bad. cloacae and 2 are Ps. fluorescens. 

 Ws differs from W2 only in its faUure to reduce nitrates. Two 

 cultures in this table are unpigmented forms fermenting none of 

 the sugars; one of the cultures, W13, produces spores. Two 

 cultures are pigmented organisms which show no fermentative 

 reactions. One culture, W^, produces spores and ferments 

 glucose and sucrose with the production of acid but no gas and 

 one culture, Wtc, ferments glucose, lactose and sucrose with the 

 production of acid. 



In table 3 one culture, Wu, was identified as Bact. aerogenes. 

 One culture produces an acid fermentation in glucose; two cul- 

 tures are unpigmented bacteria which do not ferment and two 

 cultures produce yellow pigment and show no fermentative 

 reactions. 



