VI FURTHER CHARACTERS OF THE BACILLUS 55 



culture previous to sterilisation. Of course the mice 

 that die after being inoculated with the sterilised 

 broth culture do not contain any bacilli either in 

 the heart's blood, or lung, or spleen. In a later 

 chapter, after having described and discussed a 

 species of pathogenic bacilli (aerobic bacillus of 

 oedema) occurring in the soil, which is in many- 

 respects similar to the bacillus of grouse disease, I 

 shall have occasion to return to an interesting physio- 

 logical action of the grouse bacilli when inoculated 

 simultaneously with the aerobic oedema bacillus. At 

 present I wish to conclude this chapter by the 

 observations I made with resfard to the influence 

 of drying on the bacilli of grouse disease. 



The experiments of drying a particle of the growth 

 prove that hereby the vitality of the bacilli is com- I^ax^v^ • 

 pletely annihilated. Of a living broth culture a thin 

 film is spread over a sterile cover-glass (sterilised 

 previously by heat), then kept covered up, while the 

 film is dried either over a dish of sulphuric acid or in 

 the air-pump : if with such a dried film a tube con- 

 taining nutrient broth is inoculated and incubated, 

 the broth remains sterile, proving that the drying 

 has killed the bacilli. But the experimental result is 

 different — if, for instance, a particle of the growth is 

 removed from a culture on gelatine, Agar, or potato, 

 and dried on a cover-glass. In a percentage of cases 



