( 18 ) 



form" of butyric ferment, i.e. only mobile staves and no Clostridia. 

 With them a figure of respiration may be produced consisting of 

 a single fine line of quickly moving little staves, situated at some 

 distance from the edge of the cover-glass and the meniscus of the 

 preparation, which places the microaërophily of this ferment beyond 

 all doubt. 



If to the fermenting mass pure calcium carbonate is added, by 

 which the acid is neutralised, the growth of the bacteria becomes 

 much stronger, and the staves give place to Clostridia rich in gra- 

 nulose, and which at length produce spores. Although the opaqueness 

 caused by the chalk, spoils in some degree the purity of the figu- 

 res of respiration, yet the experiment succeeds well enough, and leads 

 to the same result, i, e. proves that the Clostridia of the butyric fer- 

 ment are microaërophilous in the same way as the oxygenform. "With 

 boiled milk, ^) in which a spontaneous butyric fermentation had origi- 

 nated, the above observations could equally be made. That the same may 

 be said with regard to the bidijUc ferment {Granulohacter hiitylicum) 

 formerly described by me "), I need hardly add here, as it was the 

 continued study of this very ferment, which rendered the here 

 described relations clearer to me. 



Anaërobics of putrefaction of froteids. The most striking instances 

 of obligatous anaerobics are met with in the putrefaction of pepton, 

 or, generally speaking, of proteine substances. If one wishes to 

 isolate the microbes concerned, efficacious measures must be taken 

 for the exclusion of oxygen, as the quantity of air which these 

 ferments admit, without their growth being impaired, is certainly 

 much smaller thaa with the butyric and butylic ferments. Hence 

 here in particular it was of importance to study their relation to 

 oxygen. 



Before entering upon my immediate subject, I think it necessary 

 to say something about the different species concerned in the process 

 of putrefaction, the literature on this subject being quite unsatisfactory. 



Bacillui' putrificus coll Bienstock^) is an anaerobic, fouod back 

 by nobody, so that it cannot be typical for the putrefaction of 

 proteids. Besides, an exact microscopic examination shows that more 



1) Milk, boiled in a not too undeep flask, will sometimes get into butyric fermeu- 

 tation, even with free entrance of air, without the presence of aerobics. 



2) Archives Nc'erlandaises T. 29, pg. 1. As this ferment produces much more 

 propyl icalkohol than butylicalkohol it would have been better to call it Oranidobader 

 propyÜQum. 



") Zeitschrift fiir klinische Medicin, Bd. 8. pag. 1. 1884. 



