GENUS BACTERIUM 289 



Place in nature. This organism was described by Moore * 

 from an outbreak of chicken disease thought at the time to be 

 infectious leukemia but later identified as fowl typhoid. The 

 organism is found in the blood and tissues of fowls dead of 

 this disease. It is not known to have a habitat in nature out- 

 side of the infected fowls and material contaminated by them. 

 It was isolated by Dawson 2 from a large outbreak of the dis- 

 ease in Maryland and by Curtice 3 in Rhode Island. 



Morphology. Bacterium sanguinarium varies somewhat 

 in size according to the medium in which it has developed. In 

 tissues of fowls or rabbits it is from 1.2 to 1.8 /u, long and from 

 1 to 1.3 /* broad. The ends are tapering or rounded in cul- 



Fig- 62 ' Bacterium sangui- 

 narium. A clump of organisms 

 in a blood space in the liver of 

 a fowl. 



tures; in the short forms it could easily be mistaken for a 

 micrococcus. In tissue it frequently appears in small clumps, 

 but usually in pairs united end to end. Spores or vacuoles 

 have not been discovered. Involution forms are common. In 

 cultures on agar it is more slender than in tissues. When ex- 

 amined in a hanging drop preparation, especially at the edge, 

 it frequently shows a marked polar arrangement of the cellu- 

 lar protoplasm. In these preparations there is observed a 

 marked dancing motion of the organism. In old bouillon cul- 

 tures short chains composed of these organisms united end to 

 end are sometimes observed. 



Staining. It stains with the aniline dyes ordinarily used, 



Moore. Bulletin No. 8, B. A. I., U. S. Dept. Agric., 1895, p. 63. 

 Report B. A. I., U. S. Dept. Agric., 1905-6, p. 185. 

 Dawson. Annual Report, Bureau Animal Industry, 1898. 

 Curtice. Bull. 87, R. I. Agric. Exp. Station, 1902. 



