3*76 WILLIAM ROBERT SMltfl. 



at a temperature of 20° C, in twenty-four hours a number of 

 small points are visible which by an ordinary magnifying glass 

 are seen to have a faint outline, and to be scattered uniformly 

 over the surface ; in two days they are very distinct and are 

 seen as circular whitish spots of the size of a fine point. 

 These spots do not increase much in size, and in a few days 

 liquefaction of the gelatine commences. 



In tube cultivations, in which the solid gelatine is inocu- 

 lated by means of a platinum wire inserted for some distance 

 in the depth, the tubes being subsequently placed in an incu- 

 bator at 20° C, in twenty-four hours the channel of inocu- 

 lation is visible as a pale whitish streak made up of closely 

 placed minute dots ; these in a few days so enlarge that an 

 appearance is presented of more or less parallel lines of small 

 dots, at the same time that the growth spreads over the surface 

 as a whitish film. In about three or four days the first trace 

 of liquefaction is seen with slight depression of the surface ; 

 this liquefaction gradually extends downwards from the sur- 

 face, the liquefied part being thick and uniformly turbid. 



The accompanying drawings (PI. XXX, figs. ] and 2) show 

 these characteristics, and fig. 2 the amount of liquefaction which 

 had taken place in eighteen days, the tube having been inoculated 

 on the 12th July, and the sketch made on the 30th July. 



Microscopically, the micrococci are seen to be mostly single, 

 or diplococci ; there are, however, a few short chains and a few 

 small groups of four, five, to eight. 



With this organism I inoculated both acid and neutral 

 sterile urine, and in twenty- four to thirty-six hours the 

 ammoniacal change took place. I also inoculated the fluid 

 recommended by von Taksch, consisting of one litre of water, 

 one eiglith gramme of acid phosphate of potash, one sixteenth 

 gramme of sulphate of magnesia, and three grammes of urea 

 with a like result. 



Therefore, so far as my observations go, the ammoniacal 

 decomposition of urine is brought about by the presence of a 

 micrococcus which difl'ers from that described by Professor W. 

 Leu be, inasmuch as it liquefies gelatine. Whether this organism 



