280 J. S. LAWRENCE AND W. W. FORD 



B. vulgatus. Another organism producing a black pigment and 

 evidently belonging to the mesentericus group was sent us by 

 Winslow as Bacillus lactis-niger. It corresponds culturally to 

 Bacillus mesentericus. It was not encountered in our work but 

 is included here for the sake of completeness. The same holds 

 true of the organism described originally as Bacillus mesenteri- 

 cus-ruber (properly B. globigii) a culture of which was obtained 

 from the Krai collection in Vienna. Evidently this is an extreme- 

 ly rare organism in this country as it was never obtained 

 in Baltimore either from milk or from any other source. 



One of the most difficult organisms to identify was a species 

 frequently isolated in Baltimore from milk which after boiling 

 clots and peptonizes. In morphology and in its chief cultural 

 reactions it corresponds closely to Bacillus cereus but is differ- 

 entiated from this species by its acid fermentation of lactose 

 and its coagulation of milk. This organism was evidently 

 first described by Loeffler in 1887 as Bacillus lactis albus {Bacillus 

 albolactus Migula). We have been unable to obtain a culture 

 of Loeffler's organism but in his original description Loeffler 

 differentiates this species clearly from several other organisms 

 found in milk particularly the ones now known as Bacillus 

 vulgatus of Fliigge, Bacillus liodermos of Fliigge, and Bacillus 

 butyricus of Hueppe. Since Loeffler was the first to call attention 

 to the presence of an organism in boiled milk which acidifies 

 and clots it and which he differentiated from other spore-bearing 

 bacteria, we feel that similar organisms from boiled milk which 

 correspond to Loeffler's description should be regarded as identical 

 with his species. We therefore propose to utilize the name 

 Bacillus albolactus Migula, (synonym Bacillus lactis albus Loeffler) 

 for the organisms isolated from the source studied by Loeffler. 

 This organism is undoubtedly isolated from time to time by 

 other bacteriologists and must exist in a number of laboratories. 

 It was apparently described recently by Neide (1904) in Meyer's 

 laboratory as Bacillus teres. Bacillus albolactus is, we believe, 

 the common cause of the clotting and peptonization occasionally 

 seen with boiled milk. It is undoubtedly also a contributing 



