The Character of the Flagella 359 



somewhat bushy appearance about the body of the germs. 

 In many specimens there was an exceedingly large number of 

 flagella which were bent at their distal ends, if attached to 

 the germ, into nearly or quite perfect circles or rings varying 

 from 1.2 to 2 /u, in diameter, while other filaments were curved 

 to such an extent that the free ends passed either above or 

 below the body of the germ. In many preparations I have 

 found fields in which one or more of the filaments on nearly 

 every germ exhibited these circles or rings. Their formation 

 is somewhat curious and their significance is as yet specula- 

 tive. Frequently many of the "rings" are broken from the 

 flagella. The filaments were usuallly bent at right angles to 

 their course at the point where the curve begins. This gave 

 them the appearance of the ends of certain screw hooks. 

 Less frequently the rings were formed by the distal part of 

 the filaments bending to one side, forming perfect or nearly 

 complete circles. In some preparations a considerable num- 

 ber of bacilli were observed around which were from one to 

 four rings or inbending filaments with few, if any, extended 

 flagella. The terminal rings and incurved flagella on the 

 typhoid bacilli were very marked, but their differential value 

 is destroyed by the fact that they occasionally appeared in 

 preparations of the other bacteria. 



The detached filaments vary in number, as in the case of 

 the previously described organisms. The number of flagella 

 on the individual germs also varied ; ten was the maximum 

 number that I was able positively to determine on a single 

 germ ; Luksch found twelve ; and according to Sternberg^", 

 Babes foimd as many as twenty on a single germ. In the 

 photographs of typhoid bacillus published by Fraenkel and 

 Pfeiffer^', and Migula", showing their flagella, ten is the 

 largest number positively represented as belonging to a single 

 germ. In these photographs, clumps and pairs of bacilli 

 show a much larger number. A count of the flagella on 200 

 germs in well selected fields showed 9 bacilli to be without 

 motile appendages, 23 had one, 39 had two, 45 had three, 27 

 had four, 15 had five, 23 had six, 11 had seven, 3 had eight, 

 3 had nine, and 2 had ten. The length of the filaments 



