The Microscope. 199 



We left our studies with the mature object proliferated into its 

 first distinct stagfe of vegetative differentiation. We have two 

 coccoid objects before us. That is, two round objects, .their 

 diameters being the same in any direction. If colored, they color 

 throughout; that is, diffusely. 



Were these objects to rernain in this condition they would be 

 indeed Micrococci; they do not, however. They almost immediately 

 begin to increase in a longitudinal direction, but in this condition 

 they still stain diff'usely. 



In my first description qf the swine-plague germ I said that 

 the next biological phenomenon was the appearayice of a delicate 

 ivhite line separating this ovoid object into two halves. The above, 

 while not exactly an erroneous description, is certainly anticipated 

 by another phenomenon in the evolutional development of this 

 coccoid, diffusely- coloring object into the mature form of any of this 

 class of germs. That this ivhite, non-coloring substance is a secretion 

 of the two pole or coccoid ends of these '■^belted^'' germs is beyond 

 all question, as well as that it has a different chemical composition. 



These two facts, when taken together with the previously stated 

 one, that the white substance almost, if not instantly, disappears 

 from vieiv the moment both of the coccoid pole-ends have become 

 shed off, segmented, leads directly to the following hypothesis : 



May not this tvhite substance constitute, in part at least, the 

 ptomaine, or essential poisonous, pathogenetic p)rinciple, in con- 

 nection tuith these ^^ belted'' septica^mic germs; and may not this 

 jjrocess of the immediate dissolution of this white substance be the 

 means by which the ptomaine gets into solution and then permeates 

 the fluid cultivating media and the blood f Or, is this substance 

 fluid and by the separation of the ends does it thus escape ?. 



To my mind, these suppositions are worthy of consideration. 

 The fact that we can find no evidence of the development of perma- 

 nent spores by these germs and that this white substance is a secre- 

 tion of the pole- ends, goes largely to suppoi't these hypotheses. 



The phenomenon above spoken of, as anticipating the formation 

 of the segmenting white line which separates the two darker portions 

 of these organisms, is that this ivhite substance first appears hi the 

 center of the body of the demise, dark, ovoid object as the minutest of 

 ivhite specks, which gradually increases in size and quantity and 

 extends across the entire object — the white line — being at first 

 broader in the middle but gradually ividening until it completely 



