XI CULTIVATION OF THE BACILLUS 99 



and a consequent appearance of branching cannot 

 be easily excluded. 



I have also compared the two bacilli in their 

 behaviour in gelatine to which previously a trace of 

 litmus had been added — sufficient to render the gelatine 

 of a slight bluish tint. While the bacillus of fowl 

 enteritis decolorises the litmus gelatine markedly at 

 and around the growth, the bacillus of fowl cholera 

 does this only very slightly indeed. (As is the case 

 with other organisms, tested by various observers, 

 this method of growing microbes in litmus-gelatine, 

 since its introduction .by Buchner, is a common method 

 of cultivation for the sake of differentiation.) The 

 decoloration produced also by the bacillus of fowl 

 enteritis is more rapid and more pronounced near the 

 surface than in the depth. 



From all these observations, then, we are in a 

 position to affirm that also in respect of the character 

 of the cultivations in various media the bacillus of 

 fowl enteritis is a distinct species, well differentiated 

 from the bacillus of fowl cholera. 



