200 THE EVOLUTION OF LIFE 
too, the organisms found are Bacilli (Fig. 9, a), either 
short and unjointed (straight or bent); or longer, 
and representing what I have hitherto described as 
Vibriones; or longer still, in the form of unjointed 
Leptothrix threads. I have all along contended 
that these were merely different forms of the same 
organism ;1 and now this is the accepted view, and 
they are all regarded, in accordance with the nomen- 
clature of Cohn and Eidam, as Bacilli of different 
lengths, 
In airless flasks nothing like spore-formation 
shows itself in the filaments ; so that in this respect 
the Bacillus of urine agrees with that of hay and of 
splenic fever. There is a still further agreement ; 
since in open vessels, or in those which are merely 
plugged with cotton-wool, a scum forms on the 
surface of boiled urine inoculated with Bacilli in 
twenty-four hours—when at a temperature of 
100 F. (38° C.) —composed, in the main, of 
filaments which within forty-eight hours will show 
the highly refractive bodies in their interior 
(Fig. 9, 6), and indeed, partly break up (c) after this 
formation of ‘‘spores.” All this agrees with the 
description which has been given by Cohn and 
Koch of the hay-Bacillus, and of that of splenic 
fever. It is quite evident, therefore, that we must 
recognise the existence of a urine-Bacillus; but I do 
not on that account attempt to confer upon it any 
new specific name. Such a procedure would, I 
think, not only tend to confirm erroneous notions 
as to the distinctness of the life-history of these 
1 See Mature, July 14, 1870, p. 221. 

