October 12, 1893] 



NATURE 



579 



effect' :— " I observed at table the under surface of a half round 

 of boiled salt beef, cooked the day before, to be specked with 

 several bright carmine-oloured spots, as if the dish in vifhich 

 the meat was placed had contained minute portions of red 

 currant jelly. Suspecting what these might turn out to be, I 

 directed the beef to be placed aside. On examination the next 

 day the spots had spread into patches of a vivid carmine-red 

 stratum of two or more inches in length. With a simple lens 

 the plant appears to consist of a gelatinous substratum of a paler 

 red, bearing an upper layer of a vivid redhu-e, having an uneven 

 or papillated surface. The microscope shows this .'Stratum to 

 consist of generally globose cells, immersed in, or connected by, 

 mucilaginous or gelatinous matter. The cells vary insize, and 

 contain red endochrome ; they seem to consist of a single cell- 

 membrane, and contain a nucleus. Treated with sulpho-iodine 

 they become blue. " 



.\s to its place in the organic kingdom, Mr. Stephens was of 

 opinion that it was a Palmella closely allied XoPalmella cruenta, 

 but distinct, the cells or granules of the latter differing from it, 

 not only in their colour but size, being very much smaller than 

 those of P. prodigiosa. As to its propagation, he further remarks 

 that it seems to extend itself by ela^tically spurting a soit of jet 

 or column of red particles, which Berkeley compared to a jet of 

 blood from an artery, and by this method it was suggested that 

 the extraordinary rapidity with which a large surface becomes 

 covered can be explained. The vitality of the cells is not im- 

 paired (within a certain time) by desiccation, even at a high 

 temperature, and when dry they retain their germinating powers 

 for a considerable period. 



The spherical cells are filled with a reddish oil, which gives 

 to them a peach-blossom tint, and when transferred to raw 

 meat they assume a splendid fuchsia-colour, resembling spots of 

 blood. The plant is only developed in the dark, and the 

 nitrogen necessary for iis nutriment must be derived from the 

 air, especially when developed upon bread. About 1886 an 

 epidemic appearance on the Continent jwas attributed to this 

 source. Pieces of cooked meat presented a singular carmine- 

 red colouration, and stained vividly the fingers or linen with 

 which they came in contact. These phenomena prevailed 

 regularly for a period of three months. Food cooked over- night 

 was found the next morning covered with red patches, and it 

 then underwent rapid alteration. Coincident with a .sudden 

 and considerable fall in the temperature the epidemic ceased, 

 and did not reappear.- 



Fresenius records the result of his examination of this organism, 

 in his "Beitrage," to the effect that "he took four boiled 

 potatoes, and placed them in a drawer, having previously 

 rubbed two of them slightly here and there with the red sub- 

 stance. After about twenty-four hours, the two potatoes which 

 had not been rubbed, and which had not been in immediate 

 contact with the other two, were affected with fresh spots of the 

 red substance, whilst the spots upon the two which had been 

 rubbed had increased in extent. The spots showed themselves 

 in the form of irregular groups of blood-red drops of different 

 size, which in some places were distinct, and in others had run 

 into one another. The individual bodies of which the spots 

 consist are mere molecules, their diameter varying from one two- 

 thou'andth to one four-thousandth of a line. They are mostly 

 round, occasionally oval, and sometimes slightly constructed in 

 the middle, by way of preparation for increase by division into 

 two small round cells. By far the greater number of them, 

 when brought under the microscope in a drop of water, remain 

 at rest— they lie close together in large numbers ; when they are 

 more dispersed in the fluid they have a motion which is not dis- 

 tinguishable from ordinary molecular motion. When the drop 

 of water moves they are carried mechanically over the stage like 

 other molecules, and when this motion ceases they remain at 

 one spot in a sort of quivering state until a fresh current carries 

 Ihetu in another direction. If the eye be kept carefully upon 

 a I'.irt of the stage where the small bodies are thinly dispersed, 

 it will be observed that they passively follow the current of the 

 water, nor, when the current has become sluggish, or has even 

 altogether ceased, are individual bodies ever seen to detach 

 themselves from the group, and take a contrary direction, which 

 real monads would do with great activity." 



The present determination of this organism, according to 

 some, is Micrococcus frodigiosus, but according to others it is 



1 H. O. S:eplim3, on Palmella fntdigiosa in Aitnnls ff Xal. Hist. 

 vol. xii. December, 1S53. 

 - Pharmaceutical •Journal, January 39, 1887, p. 610. 



Bacillus prodi^iosiis, and consequently one of the SchizomyceUs. 

 It has been pointed out that as the te nperature rises thii 

 Bacillus loses its piwer of forming a pigment, and if it is grown 

 on potato or bread-paste, in an incubator at blood heat, instead 

 of at the temperature of the room, the colour is gradually lost, 

 and the culture no longer smells ofherring brine, but the power 

 of forming lactic acid from milk-sugar, with the accompanying 

 precipitation of the casein, is frequently considerably increased; 

 so that it would appear that the energy required for the buiW- 

 ing-up of the pigment substance was '" ''"« case, diverted into 

 another channel, and lactic acid, and perhaps other substances, 

 are produced in place of the usual pigment.' 



The reappearance of this organism in this country, during the 

 late hot weather, and especially on cooked potatoes, gives 

 interest to its history, and is sufficient apology for these 

 observations. M, C. GoOKE. , 



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1 Dr. G. S. Woodhead, " Bacteria and their Products " (1891). p. 9- 



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