74 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



inoculated. The character of the " slimy whey " cheese is slightly 

 inferior to the best type of cheese ripened without such inoculation. 

 They do not keep so well, and hence are not so well adapted for export 

 purposes; but in spite of these disadvantages, the uniformity of the 

 product has made the use of the slimy whey very popular in Holland, 

 and at least one-third of the cheese in that country are now manufac- 

 tured by this method of artificial ripening. Weigmann ^" in 1889 iso- 

 lated from this slimy whey a coccus, which often occurred in pairs or 

 short chains of 4 to 10 cells. It grew only in milk or milk gelatine, 

 and the former medium was made stringy by this microbe in 12-15 

 hours at 25° C, and the casein was precipitated in the form of minute 

 particles. The serum which was present in small quantities was very 

 stringy. The maximum temperature for this coccus was between 30 

 to 40° C. ; the minimum at 14° C, and the thermal death point 50° C. 

 According to Weigmann's investigation, the stringy substance was albu- 

 minous. The name given the organism was Streptococcus Hollandicits. 

 The people of Scandinavia are fond of slimy milk as an article of diet. 

 It is known as Taettemaelk (thick milk) in N'orway, and Filmjolk 

 (stringy milk) in Sweden and Finland, and is artificially produced by 

 rubbing the interior of the milk vessels with the Butter wort or Bog 

 Violet (Pinguicula vulgaris), or by immersing the stem of the plant in 

 milk, or even by feeding it to the cows. The leaves of this plant were 

 foimd by Weigmann to be infested with an organism which turned milk 

 ropy and which proved to be identical with the Streptococcus HoUandlcus. 

 The occurrence of ropiness in such milk is accompanied by the develop- 

 ment of acidity, whereby the development of bacteria is prevented, and 

 thus Taettemaelk may be kept for months without alteration if held 

 at low temperatures. 



These observations of Weigmann have also been confirmed by 

 Gnethart,-^ Tischutkin ^* and Johnson, and these explain very well the 

 artificial production of slimy milk in Norway. 



According to Miss Troili-Pettersen,-^ leaves of Drosera are also used 

 in the preparation of Swedish slimy milk. She stated that the organism 

 producing the stringiness is the Bacterium lactis longi, a lactic acid 

 species allied to B. gilntheri. 



In 1890 Adametz ^^ found a capsule bacillus, named by him 

 B. lactis viscosus, in water from the Liesing and Petersbach brooks which 

 run into the Danube near Vienna. This organism appeared as short 

 rods, with a thick capsule which was not stained by hematoxylin or the 

 anilin stains. It was 1.7 and 1.2 /< with, and between 1.5 and 1.7 /^ 

 without the capsule in length, and a breadth of 1.35 to 1.1 yu with, 

 and 0.9 to 0.6 without the capsule. It was slightly motile in young 



