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SPORE-FORMATION IN THE DISPORIC BACTERIA. 
On the so-called “ Sexual’? Method of Spore- 
formation in the Disporic Bacteria.' 
By 
Cc. Clifford Dobell, 
Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge ; Balfour Student in the 
University. 
With Plate 13 and 5 Text-figures. 
Contents. 
Page 
Introduction : } , . O79 
Descriptive : 
The method of spore-formation in— 
1. Bacillus spirogyra : . 581 
2. Bacterium lunula, nsp. . : . 584 
3. B. biitschlii, B. flexilis and other disporic 
Bacteria : : ‘ . 586 
General Conclusions 5 : : . 587 
Literature ' ‘ : ‘ . 594 
INTRODUCTION. 
Until the year 1902, no definite evidence regarding the 
sexuality of the Bacteria had been brought forward. It was 
generally supposed that the Bacteria constituted a group of 
very primitive organisms, in which the phenomenon of sex 
had not made its appearance. But with the publication of 
Schaudinn’s remarkable researches on Bacillus bitschlii, 
it became apparent that such a supposition could not 
unreservedly be made. It appeared probable that—in B. 
biitschlii at least—a peculiar event in the life-history 
immediately preceding sporulation should be interpreted as 
' T have already given a brief account of the work embodied in this 
paper to the Cambridge Philosophical Society, February 22nd, 1909. 
VOL, 53, PART 3.—NEW SERIES. 40 
