A NEW SPECIES OF ALCOHOL FORMING BACTERIA 243 



pension of a 24 hour-agar streak of the organism, was then 

 introduced. The controls were treated in a similar manner, 

 except that 5 cc. of sterile water was used instead of a culture. 

 The holes in the cane were then sealed with grafting wax. All 

 of the canes sleeted for the experiment were first examined for 

 borer infestion, and only the borer free canes were used. About 

 twenty inoculations were made in the first experiment, the 

 varieties D. 74 and D. 95 being selected for the purpose. The 

 inoculations were made on the 12th of October, and the canes 

 were analyzed about the first of December, allowing nearly 

 two months for the bacteria to develop. When the canes 

 were analyzed, they were split through lengthwise, and transfers 

 made with a sterile platinum loop, from the inoculation wounds 

 to sterile glycerine bouillon. In the majority of cases the B. 

 saccharalis was recovered from the inoculated portion of the cane, 

 showing that it had remained in a living condition within the 

 cane. The analyses of the canes were so variable, that it was 

 decided to repeat the experiment the following year, using a 

 slightly different method of inoculation. In September of the 

 following year two rows of D. 74 cane were inoculated. Instead 

 of a water suspension of the organism, a three days'old culture 

 grown on sterile mashed potato was used as the inoculating ma- 

 terial, and a blackleg vaccine injector was employed for the 

 inoculations. The analysis of the cane was made in November, 

 thus allowing an incubation period of two months for the organi- 

 ism to carry on its activities within the cane. The results of 

 the analyses again showed that there was no marked deteriora- 

 tion of the juice of the inoculated cane. The juice of the in- 

 oculated cane, it is true, showed an average purity of 64.3 as 

 against 67.4 for the control, but there were as many cases where 

 the purity of the inoculated cane was higher than its control, 

 as where it was lower. In this experiment, just as in the pre- 

 vious one, the organism was recovered from the inoculated 

 portion of the cane, showing that it had remained in a living 

 condition during the entire period. It is possible that the 

 variations in the composition of the juice from different canes, 

 even though they may be of the same size and in the same 



