VIABLE BACTERIA IN YOUNG CULTURES 



435 



that the relation of the viable to the total count rises from 08.95 

 per cent at the start to equality; after remaining at this level for 

 at least fifty minutes, it declines gradually to 73.08 per cent at 

 520 minutes. The reason for tliis equality was not forthcoming, 

 but that it, too, was not due to a technical defect was shown by 

 the fact that in three other experiments a similar equality of the 

 total and viable counts was met with. No amoimt of analj-^sis 

 of these curves has yet succeeded in demonstrating the reason for 

 the difference in the results between these four and the other 

 twelve experiments. The previous history of the culture, the 



TABLE 9 

 Experiment IS 



size of the inoculum, the relation between the total and viable 

 counts in the inoculum, the presence or absence of lag, the dura- 

 tion of the logarithmic phase, the actual increase in numbers 

 during the logarithmic phase, and the rate of growth have all been 

 studied without showing any definite correlation between these 

 factors in the 4 experiments quoted. 



In conclusion one more example will be given in which at the 

 end of the logarithmic phase the relation between the total and 

 viable counts was as high as 85.23 per cent (table 9 and fig. 5). 



Here it will be seen that the condition is intermediate between 

 the two curves already shown. Unfortunately from lack of space 

 it is impossible to reproduce the curves for each of the sixteen 

 counts, but the individual protocols will be found in tables 10 

 to 22. 



