Section IV., 1905 [ 97 ] Tkans. K. S. C. 



IX. — A New Chromogcnic Slime-Producing Organism. 



By F. C. Harrison and B. Barlow. 



Bacteriological Department, Ontario Agricultural College. 

 Guelph, Canada. 



(Communicated by Dr. J. Fletcher.) 



Tlie organism hero described was isolated from a sample of "oily" 

 IniHor sent to tlie Laboratory for examination. Tlie oily clijiraoter of 

 the butter was not, however, produced by this organism. This microbe 

 aroused our interest on account of its ability to form slime and crystals 

 and also on account of the wide range of colors which it produced ; hence 

 the morphological and biological characters were worked out in some 

 detail. Following the classification of Migula, the name proposed for 

 the organism is Bacterium visco-fucatum ; following that of Alfred 

 Fischer, — Bacillus visco-fucatus. 



2lorpliology. — The cells were usually cylindrical rods, 1.0 to 

 1.8 jA. long and 0.6 to 0.9 ix wide. They were straight, curved or bont. 

 usually of even thicloiess but frequently tapering at one or both ends. 

 The ends of the cells were rounded. They occurred singly, in twos, and 

 rarely in cliains of 3 to 5 elements. Such cells as these were found in 

 young cultures in liquid media kept at temperatures below 27° C, and 

 on solid media at temperatures between 4° C. and 37° C. 



Elongated, branched and cunoate forms were common in old cultures 

 kept at temperatures below 25° C. and in young culture? at temperatures 

 above 27°C., and in certain special media. These cells were 4 to 9 // 

 long and up to 0.9 /< wide. The cuneate forms were 0.9 fx at the 

 laro;er end and 0.3 jj. at the emaller end. The branched forms were 

 frequently complicate and sometimes tangled together, reminding one of 

 a " clumping " formation, lifter the branched forms had become num- 

 erous, they broke up by transverse segmentation into short, oval ele- 

 ments. Such forms as these were common in milk and in liquid cultures 

 after 10 days' growth at 25° to 27° C, also in liquid cultures at 37° C. 

 and in water witli 14 peptone, with or witliout sucrose 5^, and in 

 the synthetic media of Fermi, Cohn and Uschinsky. 



Capsules. — Bacilli taken from affar nnd sucrose agar, and jirobably 

 from all media which Ijecame slimy v/ith the growth of the organism, 

 were capsulated. The capsule was demonstrated by Welch's capsule stain. 



Flagella. — The organism was non-motile. 

 S. c. IV., 1905. 7. 



