CULTURAL PROPERTIES 



245 



Asporogenous Anthrax Bacillus. A variety of the anthrax bacillus 

 which no longer forms spores may be raised by adding certain anti- 

 septics, such as carbolic acid in the proper proportion to the culture 

 medium. After these artificially produced varieties have once lost the 

 property of forming spores, it is not regained even when theyjire 

 transplanted to culture media free from antiseptics. 



FIG. 133 



Six cultures of anthrax bacillus, showing increase in liquefaction, with age. 



preparation.) 



(Author's 



Cultural Properties. Artificial cultivation of the anthrax bacillus 

 is very easy. It can be accomplished from infected blood, discharges 

 or tissues by the plate method or by preliminary inoculation of the 

 infected material into mice or guinea-pigs. The organism grows well 

 on all the ordinary laboratory culture media. It has a wide range of 

 temperature (between 15 and 43 C.), in which it can grow and 

 multiply, the most favorable temperature being between 30 and 40 C. 

 It not only grows well on the ordinary laboratory media, but also on 

 sterilized disks of cucumbers, in the sterilized and neutralized 

 juice of pears, onions, and beets; in urine, provided it is not too 

 alkaline, and particularly well in urine containing albumin. It is 

 readily seen that an organism thriving at such a great range of tem- 

 perature and in so great a variety of media easily finds opportunity 

 to multiply in the outside world as a saprophyte. 



Gelatin. On gelatin plates the organism first forms small, round, 

 grayish-white colonies upon the surface; these rapidly begin to liquefy 

 the culture soil. In the depth of the medium the young colonies are 

 seen as elliptical, slightly brownish, granular, small points or disks, 



