ALINIT 183 



Alinit. About 1895 Caron isolated from the soil a 

 bacterium, Bacillus ellenbachensis a, and which in pure 

 cultures was offered for sale under the name "Alinit." It 

 was claimed that this organism when applied to poor soils 

 was capable of " fixing " the nitrogen of the air, which 

 ultimately became of service for the nutrition of cereal 

 crops. Experiments to test the beneficial influence of 

 "Alinit" have led to conflicting results, Stoklasa, Grandeau, 

 Malpeaux, and others maintaining that infected plots 

 frequently produced much larger crops than plots which 

 were untreated, while many experiments on barley and 

 other crops carried out in different parts of Europe 

 showed no increase in yield after the application of 

 "Alinit" cultures. Bs. ellenbachensis belongs to a 

 common group of soil bacteria characterized by their 

 large size, aerobic nature, and power of spore production ; 

 the group includes the hay bacillus (Bs. subtilis\ Bs. 

 mycoides, Bs. megatherium, and some others closely 

 resembling these. It is a putrefactive species, which 

 decomposes proteins with the formation of peptones, 

 amino-acids, and other compounds, and under certain 

 conditions brings about the reduction of nitrates to 

 nitrites. According to Breal and Bokorny, leucine, 

 tyrosine, and other similar nitrogenous substances pro- 

 duced in putrefactive processes can be utilized for nutri- 

 tive purposes by green plants of various kinds, so that 

 the observed beneficial effects of the " alinit " bacterium 

 may be due in some cases to its power of breaking down 

 the insoluble nitrogen compounds and rendering them 

 available to crops. In addition to the power just 

 described, Stoklasa maintains that the " alinit " bacillus 

 (which he considers is identical with Bs. megatherium, 

 De Bary) is able to assimilate free nitrogen when living 



