[HARRISON] VISCOUS FERMENTATION OF MILK AND BEER 75 



milk cultures, formed no spores and occasionally appeared in short 

 chains. The bacillus did not grow in beer wort, but in milk and 

 cream produced viscosity in a few days at ordinary temperatures. 

 Adanietz believed that the slimy substance produced by this bacillus 

 attracted butyric acid bacteria, and that the slimy substance in the milk 

 was produced by the swelling of the capsules enveloping the bacteria. 

 As soon as the milk became sour the growth of the organism stopped 

 po that skim-milk under ordinary conditions was rarely made slimy by 

 th^'s microbe. Butter made from cream which had been made slimy 

 by the growth of this bacillus was very soft and smeary and of poor 

 keeping quality. Adametz also isolated this organism from a dairy 

 in Sornthal, in Switzerland, where the infection very probably originated 

 from a well. The organism of Adametz was probably identical with 

 thîît described by Zimmermann,'''^ which was isolated from water. Later 

 reference will be made to the isolation of this organism from American 

 dairies. 



Several bacteria producing slimy milk have been found in Switzer- 

 land. DeFreudenreich ^^ has described Bacillus Ouillebeau c. which 

 gave rise to inilammation of the udder in cows and also produced ropy 

 milk and caused swelling or gassy fermentation of cheese. This organ- 

 ism was closely related to the colon bacillus. 



Guillebeau -" has described two slimy milk organisms, the Bacterium 

 fTessii and the Micrococcus Freudenreichii. The former of these organ- 

 isms was an aerobic, motile bacillus 3 to 5 // long, and 1.2 /x broad, 

 which grew rapidly at temperatures between 20 and 30° C. Inoculated 

 in sterilized milk, it produced ropiness in 24 hours at 20° C. The 

 second species, a large coccus 2 /< in diameter, was, however, far more 

 injurious to milk, as it grew very quickly at moderate temperature, and 

 turned milk ropy in 5 hours at 22° C. The optimum temperature was 

 20°, and it could be destroyed by an exposure ^f 2 minutes at the 

 boiling temperature. It has frequently been found in the district of 

 Bern and often caused considerable damage. 



Comi ^" has described a bacillus which he considered identical with 

 B. viscosua (Frankland ^^). This organism was a small bacillus which 

 showed bipolar staining. ]\ïilk was curdled at room temperature in 

 two days into a soft slimy mass with no whey. The reaction was alka- 

 line. The milk became rapidly digested into a lemon yellow liquid; 

 after the casein was all dissolved, the whole liquid was yellow and 

 slimy. The odour was sickish and the mass was very slimy. After 

 cultivation for some time the organism ceased to have the power of 

 coagulating milk and producing colour, although it continued to digest 

 the casein at room temperature. An enzyme was isolated from a milk 



