Cultivation 625 



THE SPIRILLUM OF GAMALIA* (VIBRIO METSCHNIKOVI). 



Resembling the cholera spirillum in morphology and 

 vegetation, and possibly, as has been suggested, a de- 

 scendant of the same original stock, is a spirillum which 

 Gamaleia cultivated from the intestines of chickens affected 

 with a disease similar to chicken-cholera. 



Morphology. This spirillum is a trifle shorter and 

 thicker than the cholera spirillum. It is a little more 



Fig. 2 1 8. Spirillum metschnikovi, from an agar-agar culture. X 1000 

 (Itzerott and Niemann) 



curved, and has similar rounded ends. It forms long spirals 

 in appropriate media, and is actively motile. Bach spi- 

 rillum is provided with a terminal flagellum. No spores 

 have been demonstrated. 



Staining. The organism stains easily, the ends more 

 deeply than the center. It is not stained by Gram's method. 



Cultivation. It grows well both at the temperature of 

 the room and at that of incubation. 



Colonies. The colonies upon gelatin plates have a 

 marked resemblance to those of the cholera spirillum, yet 

 there is a difference; and as Pfeiffer says, "it is compara- 

 tively easy to differentiate between a plate of pure cholera 

 spirillum and a plate of pure Spirillum metschnikovi, yet it 



* "Ann. de 1'Inst. Pasteur," 1888. 

 40 



