BACTERIA IN DECOMPOSING SALMON 109 



(1903) in his report on the kinds of bacteria isolated from river 

 water and are inchided in his Croups VIII to XIII inclusive. 

 Conn (1917) stated that slowly liquefying or non-liquefying, 

 non-spore-forming short rods such as these make up from 40 to 

 75 per cent of the organisms developing on aerobic plates 

 inoculated with soil. 



The results of this mvestigation indicate that Ps. fluorescens, 

 Bact. cloacae and an unidentified flesh-colored organism play an 

 important part in the decomposition of the salmon. 



In determining the correlation between the bacteria from the 

 three sources, it has been found that 80 per cent of the bacteria 

 collected from sea-water are also found in decomposing salmon, 

 in the canneries, or in both. Approximately 52 per cent of the 

 salmon cultures were found elsewhere and about 34 per cent of the 

 cultures from the Alaskan canneries were obtained from other 

 sources. 



The results of this investigation confirm the statement pre- 

 viously made (Hunter, 1920) that the bacteria concerned in the 

 decomposition of salmon are those forms the natural habitat of 

 which is the sea-water from which the salmon are taken and 

 that the decomposition of salmon is not due to bacteria which 

 contaminate the salmon within the cannery. 



REFERENCES 



Conn, H. Joel 1917 Soil flora studies. Part I. Jour. Bact., 2, 35. 

 EdsoNjH.A., andCarpenter, C. W. 1912 Thegreenfluorescentbacteriaoccur- 



ring in maple sap. Vermont Agr. Exp. Sta. Bull. 167,521. 

 Hunter, Albert C. 1920 Bacterial groups in decomposing salmon. Jour. 



Bact., 6, 543. 

 Hunter, Albert C. 1921 The decomposition of "feedy" salmon. Jour. Agr. 



Res. In press. 

 Jordan, E. O. 1903 The kinds of bacteria found in river water. Jour. Hyg., 



3,1. 

 Levine, M. 1918 A statistical classification of the colon-cloacae group. Jour. 



Bact., 3, 253. 

 Tanner, F. W. 1918 A study of green fluorescent bacteria from water. Jour. 



Bact., 3, 63. 

 VViNSLOw, C.-E. a., Kligler, I. J., AND RoTHBERG, W. 1919 Studies on the 



classification of the colon-typhoid group of bacteria with special 



reference to their fermentative reactions. Jour. Bact., 4, 429. 



