474 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [VoL. VI. 
BEGGIATOA. 
LITERATURE. 
The structure of Beggzatoa is to a great extent recognized as affecting 
the question of the structure of Bacteria in general, and consequently in 
the literature on the subject one finds frequent reference to the structure 
of various species of Beggzatoa. Some of these references are, however, 
of a very brief character and deal only with the external form. The 
more important observations bearing on the internal structure are those 
of Biitschli,| Mitrophanow’ and Fischer.’ 
According to Biitschli in Beggtatoa, as in other sulphur Bacteria and 
in the Cyanophycez, the cytoplasm of every cell has a central body and 
a peripheral zone. These two structures are quite distinct in properly 
made preparations. In the central body are frequently large lacunar 
spaces which in the living cell are occupied by the sulphur granules. 
The central body also contains minute granules which in position and 
staining properties correspond to the “red ” granules of the Cyanophycee. 
In some preparations of B. alba the peripheral zone was very narrow, so 
much so that the central body appeared to come almost in contact with 
the membrane of the cell. In 2B. mzrabilis the central body is extraor- 
dinarily large and in it is a large vacuole in the interior of which, in 
the living cell, are small pale corpuscles in molecular movement. On the 
surface of the central body is a single layer of vesicles (Waben). Minute 
“red” granules are also found in the central body. 
Biitschli holds that the central body, thus described, is the analogue 
of the nucleus of more highly specialized cells and that consequently the 
peripheral zone of cytoplasm corresponds to the ordinary cell protoplasm 
of higher organisms. 
Mitrophanow describes as nuclei of the Sulphur Bacteria structures of 
the most diverse form and character. In some cases, in Chromatium and 
in Rhabdochromatium for example, it is an irregular, centrally placed 
mass, elongated parallel to the long axis of the cell. In other cases it 
1 ‘‘Ueber den Bau der Bacterien und verwandter Organismen,” Leipzig, 1890, Also, ‘‘ Weitere 
Ausfiirhrungen iiber den Bau der Cyanophyceen und Bacterien,” Leipzig, 1896. 
2 ‘Etudes sur l’organisation des Bacteries,” Intern. Monatsschr. fiir Anat. und Physiol., Vol. 
X, p. 475, 1893. 
3 Untersuchungen iiber den Bau der Cyanophyceen und Bakterien,” Jena, 1897. 
