334 MICROBIOLOGY 



tention to its ability to produce a coagulation necrosis which 

 led him to give it the name of Necrosebacillus. Schmorl 2 

 found this to be the cause of a disease in rabbits. Mohler 3 

 has described this organism from cases of necrotic stomatitis 

 in calves and pigs. It has also been discovered in a number of 

 diseases. The lip and leg ulceration of sheep is attributed to 

 it. 4 We have found it in a number of interesting cases of 

 local necrotic areas in livers of cattle and in one case in the 

 heart muscle of a horse. Bang 5 found it to be associated with 

 the necrotic processes found in the intestines of hogs. The 

 results reported suggest that it may be an inhabitant of the 

 normal intestine of swine and possibly of other animals. Its 

 normal habitat in nature is not known, but from the many 

 lesions attributed to it, it must be somewhat widespread. 



Morphology. Fliigge's name Bacillus necrophorus is re- 

 tained although in the observation of several workers motility 

 has not been observed. Mohler 6 emphasizes the fact that he 

 was unable to detect motility or to find flagella. It varies in 

 size from short coccus-like forms to rods and filaments. Mohler 

 states that they attain to 100 /x in length and from 0.75 to 

 1.5 /* in width. The rod forms are slender, sometimes beaded. 

 In the tissues they appear more or less matted. The ends are 

 club-shaped or tapering. 



Staining. In smear preparations from tissues it does not 

 stain as quickly with the usual dyes as most bacteria. Alka- 

 line methylene blue and carbol fuchsin give good results. 

 Mohler suggests alkaline toloidine blue * as a better stain for 

 bringing out the beaded appearance. 



Cultivation. The cultivation of Bacillus necrophorus is 



- Schmorl. Deut. Zeit. f. Tiermed., Bd. XVII (1891) p. 375. 

 3 Mohler. Bulletin No. 67, B. A. I., U. S. Dept. Agric., 1905. 

 4 Melvin and Mohler. Circular No. 160, B. A. I., U. S. Dept. 



Agric., 1910. 



3 Bang. Review in Centralbl. f. Bakt, Bd. XIII (1893) p. 203. 

 6 Mohler. loc. cit. 



* He uses a 1% solution. The film preparation is dipped for 

 from 2 to 5 seconds in the stain, immediately washed in water and 

 mounted. 



