( 670 ) 
Dre Kervyrr') has made a research at Buitenzorg on fat-splitting 
bacteria in the tropics. For the isolation of the microbes he first 
accumulated them in ERLENMEYER flasks provided with a thin layer of 
an anorganic culture liquid and finely divided fat. The inoculation was 
made with soil, water, or exerements; cultivation at 37° C. Trans- 
plantation to a same culture liquid produces an exclusive growth 
of fat-splitting organisms. 
Nine fat-splitting species were isolated, all Lipobacter-species. Of 
these four are fluorescents, two correspond in many respects to the 
Bacterium pneumoniae, whilst Lipobacter N°. 4 is a yellow non- 
liquefying micrococcus. 
(Juantitative determinations show that by some species in 12 days 
all the fat is split and one half oxydised. In a paper on thermo- 
philous bacteria pr Kruyrr*) mentions that also among these spo- 
rulating species some are found which secrete lipase, 
IL. Proor OF THE FAT-SPLITTING POWER OF MICRO-ORGANISMS. LIPASE. 
In two ways the fat-splitting power of micro-organisms may be 
stated: 1. by means of titration of the fatty acids split off by an 
organism from the fat; 2. by properly rendering visible the produced 
fatty acids and soaps. 
The first method may be successfully applied in the investigation 
of preparations in which concentrated lipase occurs. It will always 
be necessary to apply it for quantitative determinations of fat-splitting. 
The second way, including the methods followed by Rann, pr 
Kruyrr, and Eykman, should be preferred for qualitative deter- 
minations on account of its great sensitiveness. 
On the plates some of Eykman’s culture plate reactions are represented. 
The white fields of Plate A are formed on the left by a B. lipoly- 
ticum a, described on page 674, and on the right by B. Stutzeri, 
both cultivated on broth agar. Plates B and C, on which B. lipo- 
lyticum Band B. denitro fluorescens non-hquefaciens, contain broth agar 
with additon of respectively 4 °/, glucose and 4 °/, glycerin. The 
peculiar fields of / are obtained by allowing the culture plate to 
lie for some weeks after the agar layer has been removed. 
These figures show that glucose and glycerin exert little influence 
on the degree of decomposition by lipase; this becomes, however, 
1) Bull. du Départ. de l’Agric. aux Indes Néerland. 1907 cit. Centralblatt. £, 
Bakt. 2e Abt. Bd. XX S. 610. 
2) Bull. du Départ. de |’Agric. aux Indes Néerland. 1909. N. XXX Microbiologie IV, 
