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former page as having been met with in certain oysters, the 

 sewage microbe at present under consideration grows well at 

 37 C., and has not been met with in any of the numerous 

 Drigalski plates from clean shellfish which I have had before 

 me ; and therefore, without attributing at present to it any 

 special derivation, I can with confidence say that it is foreign 

 to the shellfish per se, and when found in it may with proba- 

 bility be taken to be derived from sewage or similar filth. In 

 order to be able to refer to it, I propose to name it Bacillus 

 streptoides, on account of its tendency to form chains. 



(5.) As a last and important microbe which I have met 

 with, once in Drigalski plates inoculated with a trace of typical 

 fluid typhoid stool and twice out of five samples of sewage 

 of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, is a species which in all 

 morphological and cultural characters coincides with the 

 Bacillus fsecalis (alkaligenes), first isolated by Petruschki 

 from typhoid stools. The microbe which we isolated pro- 

 duced on Drigalski plates distinctly blue colonies, which in 

 their growth, form, and aspect might be mistaken for those 

 of B. typhosus or of B. Gaertner ; examined in the hanging 

 drop the component bacilli were cylindrical, motile, and 

 multiflagellated, and therefore not different from the B. 

 typhosus or B. Gaertner ; but they failed to become agglu- 

 tinated with typhoid serum or with Gaertner serum in 

 moderate dilution (1 : 20). On gelatine surface and in gela- 

 tine shake culture the growth quite resembles that of B. 

 typhosus, but here the similarity ends, for the microbe in 

 question produces in litmus milk (at 37 C.) forthwith 

 distinct alkali, the milk retaining its fluid character ; it turns 

 MacConkey fluid (at 37 C.) blue, and it produces no gas in 

 glucose media ; injected into guinea-pigs subcutaneously it 

 exerted no pathogenic action. 



Dr. Durham * has given it as his opinion that the 

 Bacillus fsecalis (alkaligenes) of Petruschki is identical 

 with B. Gaertner. As stated just now, and as has been 

 well known to Petruschki, it has certain, characters in 

 common both with the B. typhosus as also the B. Gaertner. 



* Brit. Med. Journal, December 17, 1898. 



