550 ALBERT C. HUNTER 



Of the 6 cultures producing pigment on gelatin and agar 3 

 produce an orange pigment, 1 a flesh-colored pigment and 2 a 

 greenish pigment. Cultures 14a, 113b and 180, producing 

 orange pigment, have been found to resemble closely Bad. breve 

 (Frankland, 1894), Bad. caudatum (Wright, 1895) and Bad. 

 aurantiacum (Frankland, 1894) respectively. The organism 

 producing a flesh-colored pigment, 124, is very similar to Erythro- 

 bacillus carnicolor (Frankland, 1894). The original descriptions 

 of these bacteria are not adequate for positive identification 

 but the reactions of the organisms studied have been found to 

 check with the limited descriptions given in the literature. The 

 two cultures producing green pigment, C and 216, do not closely 

 resemble any bacteria described. These two organisms are 

 undoubtedly identical and might well have been considered as 

 a single culture. All cultures of C and 216 have an aromatic 

 odor. 



No strict anaerobes and no spore-forming bacteria were isolated 

 from the decomposed salmon. The absence of bacteria of the 

 mesentericus group was surprising in view of the fact that during 

 1919 an examination of 530 cans of salmon packed in Alaska 

 showed 42 per cent of the cans to contain living bacteria of this 

 group (Hunter and Thorn, 1919). No such organisms, however, 

 have been isolated from the salmon caught and packed in the 

 Puget Sound region. In considering the source of the organisms 

 found in the uncooked fish it is evident that neither strict anae- 

 robes nor spore-forming bacteria should be expected. As shown 

 in the previous paper on the subject (Hunter, 1920) the digestive 

 tract and viscera of the salmon are sterile when there is no food in 

 the tract and when the fish are examined immediately after they 

 are caught. The presence of bacteria in the gills, mouth and 

 on the skin at all times and the late appearance of these organ- 

 isms in the digestive tract and in the viscera indicate that the 

 infection after death is from the outside inward rather than 

 from the inside outward as is ordinarily found in the case of 

 warm-blooded animals. We would expect the bacteria in the 

 gills and mouth and on the skin to be those forms, the natural 

 habitat of which is the sea-water in which the salmon live. 



