BACTERIOLOGY OF SOME DISEASES OF SHEEP 9 



elevated above the surface of the agar, and had a moist, brightly 

 reflecting appearance. 



Stab cultures under oil developed a faint greyish streak along the 

 line of puncture after 24 hours. This was replaced on the third day by a 

 coarse band, with short, coarse, spiny projections, but the development 

 of gas broke up the medium. 



Bacillus of Disease " B." 



After 24 hours' incubation, the glucose-bouillon was muddy-looking, 

 and there was a marked evolution of gas. In 36 hours the medium in 

 the upper part of the tube began to clear, while the remainder was as 

 milky-looking as before, if not more so. After two days, the upper half of 

 the medium was clear, and the whole of it became relatively transparent 

 in about three days. If, at any time, the tube was but slightly shaken, 

 the transparency of the medium was almost immediately changed to 

 a diffuse milky opacity. The deposit was never seen on one side of the 

 tube only, nor did it ever fall down in floccules as in braxy. A copious 

 grey homogeneous mass was ultimately found in the bottom of the tube. 

 The reaction of the medium became acid. The organism present was 

 a thin, straight, scarcely motile, rod with rounded ends. Thread forms 

 were common, and hence there was a great difference in the lengths, 

 which varied from 2'8/jt to 486 /x. The bacilli — obtained from artificial 

 media — were never found in clumps as was the case with braxy, but 

 in the oedematous fluid from a guinea-pig — dead 30 hours after 

 inoculation — huge aggregated clumps of bacilli were present. The 

 bacillus was stained by all the ordinary stains and by Gram's process. 

 The most favourable medium for the investigation of the sporing phase 

 was the original peritoneal liquid, sporing being very slight on artificial 

 media. The spore was single, relatively large, usually polar, and 

 sometimes free. 



Growth on Gelatine. 



Slope cultures under aerobic conditions showed slight liquefaction 

 and growth, only after several weeks' incubation at 21° C. 



Stab cultures under oil, after two weeks, exhibited liquefaction of the 

 medium as a narrow cylinder, lying in which were, at several places, small, 



(409) C C 



