36 DE. E. KLEIN. 



pendicularly ascending branched minute plants at the bottom 

 was obtained in this very manner ; but under these conditions 

 no new spore was formed — the growth of the threads did not 

 reach the surface. 



In cell specimens of the kind mentioned above the Bacillus 

 anthracis grows very well both in the neutral pork broth as 

 well as in the gelatine pork. In the latter, when kept solid, 

 i. e. at a temperature of about 20 — 25° C, the progress of the 

 bacillus can be readily watched. The change of the bacilli 

 into the very characteristic homogeneous-looking long threads 

 forming bundles twisted round one another in a spiral manner 

 so as to resemble a cable ; the extension of the threads in all 

 directions ; the appearance of spores and their full develop- 

 ment, come out here with the same beauty as in the previous 

 cultivations. One drawback to the cultivation in cell speci- 

 mens is the possibility of contamination with air organisms, as 

 has been mentioned before. In many instances the growth of 

 Bacillus anthracis proceeds all right for two or three days, 

 even to the formation of spores, but then an unpleasant crowd 

 of moving bacilli, or what is equally common, zooglcea masses 

 of innumerable micrococci cover everything in the field, includ- 

 ing the Bacilli anthracis. But I have had a good many 

 specimens in which the growth of Bacillus anthracis re- 

 mained free of contamination. In such cases it is noticed that 

 after some days the gelatine becomes also here liquefied. 

 While in some specimens active spore formation is observed, 

 in others, kept and established under apparently the same con- 

 ditions, there never is a trace of real spores, or at the utmost 

 there is a sort of abortive or imperfect spore formation. In 

 the latter cases the whole growth of bacilli in the preparation 

 gradually disappears, and dwindles down to an insignificant 

 number of hyaline threads, just as was the case with the culti- 

 vations in the test-tubes and flasks. But whether the growth 

 leads to the formation of spores or not, there is always, already 

 in the early stages when the bundles of bacillus threads are 

 yet few and not very long, this fact to be noticed, viz. that in 

 many threads there are a good many shorter or longer spaces 



