1007.] on Certain Seasonal Diseases of the Sheep. 543 



with these fine granular particles dispersed throughout its midst. 

 The whole constitutes a somewhat viscid mass, which can be stirred 

 up only with difficulty, rising in a central column with serpiginous 

 coils, and settling down again rapidly when the medium is brought 

 to rest. 



When cultivated by the puncture- or stab-method on glucose- 

 agar medium under anaerobic conditions, and at 37-38° C, a 

 hixuriant growth shows itself rapidly along the track of the needle ; 

 copious gas-bells are liberated, which soon tear the medium in pieces 

 and force it up against the cotton-wool plug. If the disengagement 

 of gas is slight, mere slits or tiny rents may be formed in the medium, 

 along which the bacillus tends to propagate. Owing to the amount 

 of gas evolved and the consequent laceration of the medium, the 

 growth is seldom characteristic. 



By far the most distinctive culture is that made anaerobically, 

 under oil, upon glucose-gelatin at a temperature of 21° C. As might 

 be expected, the organism under these circumstances germinates 

 slowly. From a week to ten days must intervene before the culture 

 can be said to be diagnostic, but when this time has elapsed, there is 

 no method by which the character of the growth can be seen to such 

 advantage. The peritoneal liquid, after being engrafted upon 

 glucose-beef -tea, is purified by subjecting the medium to a tempera- 

 ture of 80° C. for twenty minutes ; thereafter, the mixture is in- 

 cubated at 38° C. for thirty-six hours. The organism thus generated 

 is next inoculated upon the glucose-gelatin by the puncture- or stab- 

 method. The oil which overlies the surface of the gelatin is no 

 barrier to accomphshing this, for, in passing through it, the 

 organism adheres quite well to the platinum needle and is carried 

 down with it to the depths of the medium. 



Retained at 21° C, signs of germination can be recognised by the 

 third day. The needle-track becomes more evident, and soon, along 

 its course, colonies begin to show which slowly increase in size. 

 From the eighth to the tenth day, the growth is at its best, and 

 has the following appearance : It is most copious from two to 

 three centimetres below the surface, but extends along the whole 

 track. Little cup-shaped areas of liquefaction come to be arranged 

 at intervals of about a centimetre, one above the other, concave and 

 hollowed-out above, convex below. They closely resemble diminutive 

 cups filled with the liquefied medium. From the hollow upper 

 surface of each of these, coarse arms are thrown upwards and 

 outwards, almost as if something solid had been dropped into the 

 cup and had occasioned a splash. The arms are comparatively 

 disjointed in their course, and have none of the continuous thread- 

 like character of some other members of the group. I do not 

 know of any other organism which grows in the same fashion. It 

 differs from a culture similarly treated of Louping-ill, Black-quarter, 

 Malignant (Edema, Disease " A," or that of Disease " B." 



