374 WILLIAM KOBERT SMITH. 



vestigation under the direction of Dr. Klein at the Brown 

 Institution. 



I wouldj however, in the first place call attention to a valuable 

 paper published last year by Professor W. Leube, to which I 

 am indebted for much information, in which he describes 

 at some length a series of experiments undertaken by Dr. E. 

 Grraser and himself with the view of determining the particular 

 organisms which produce the alkaline urinary fermentation. 

 He mentions that, as the result of their experiments, they were 

 able to isolate " four well-described varieties '' which possessed 

 this property, two of them to a very great extent, and the re- 

 maining two only in a feebler sense. 



The strongest influence he found to be exerted by small bacilli 

 which he designated the Bacterium urese. These bacilli 

 are described as being of a uniform size, '001 mm. in thickness, 

 of an average length of '002 mm., with rounded ends. 



The second growth of most frequent occurrence is a micro- 

 coccus of a globular form, and all of equal size, about "8 m. 

 ('008 mm.) in diameter. They are occasionally united to form 

 diplococci, or two diplococci may join to form a square. 

 They do not liquefy gelatine. 



The two remaining organisms which are said to possess a 

 weaker and less constant action are : 



] . Small and thick bacilli of an oval shape with a varying 

 length of 1'2 m. to 1"5 m., their greatest width being always 

 •7 or "8 m. 



3. Very minute bacilli with a length of from i'2 to 1*4 m., 

 and a thickness of "6 ra. 



With the view of further investigating the life-history of the 

 organisms producing this fermentation, I took a quantity of 

 ordinary normal urine which had been recently voided and 

 divided it into two parts ; one part I placed aside in a sterilised 

 beaker to allow of decomposition taking place in the ordinary 

 way ; the other part I boiled in a sterilised flask for half an 

 hour. I then filtered it into another sterilised flask, taking the 

 ordinary precautions, and finally decanted it into a number of 

 sterilised test-tubes which were subsequently steamed for 



