112 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



Bitting was of the opinion that the reddening was due to factory 

 infection, the use of contaminated water and to methods of handling. 

 The amount of infection due to the use of solar salt was not definitely 

 determined, as in the experiments intended for that purpose the 

 amount due to factory infection was not wholly eliminated. 



Pierce (25) attributed the reddening of the brine from salterns 

 to red chromogenic bacteria. The particular organism was a bacillus 

 3.2 n to 3.3 n wide by 3.4 fx to 3.6 /x long. On salt agar it formed 

 raised colonies ranging in shade from pink through clear red to crimson 

 according to the size of the colony On agar slopes the pigment 

 diffused more or less through the agar imparting to it a fine and 

 delicate shade of pink. 



Pierce secured a piece of Georges Bank codfish with pink dis- 

 colouration and produced red growth on salt agar. When he inocu- 

 lated sterilized salt codfish with the red culture from brine agar he 

 was not uniformly successful and he attributed his failure to tHè use 

 of preservatives used on certain lots of salted cod. He concluded 

 that this organism was present in salt after it was harvested and 

 stored and would produce red colouration if brought into contact 

 with codfish. He suggested sterilization of the salt to prevent 

 infection. 



Kellerman (28) described two cocci isolated from red codfish. 

 One he considered identical with M. litoralis (Poulsen), Clathrocystis 

 roseo-persicina (Farlow), Diplococcus gadidarum (Beckwith), and he 

 thought that Beckwith was working with a mixture of this organism 

 and a smaller micrococcus and suggested that the name M. litoralis 

 gadidarum be retained for the smaller organism. Both organisms 

 were slow growing and required ten to thirty days at 25° C. to make 

 visible growth on salted fish. Both organisms grew in 15 per cent, 

 salt codfish agar, also slightly in beef broth and milk, and the larger 

 one grew well on beef gelatin and agar, the smaller one gave scanty 

 growth. Both organisms stained well with methylene blue and were 

 gram positive. 



The red colour on salt fish penetrated the meat and gave to the 

 centre a red tint. 



Cobb (26) stated that codfish was subject to spoilage when 

 exposed to a temperature above 65° F. Spoilage usually manifested 

 by the fish turning red and emitting a foul odour. Fish completely 

 submerged in pickle was immune so long as it remained there. The 

 trouble was not so marked on the Pacific coast, due probably to the 

 lower summer temperature of this coast and the use of a higher 



