SAPROPHYTIC MICROCOCCI. 227 



evident that an acid reaction was produced by the 

 vegetation of the sarcinae. Falkenheim was also able Iodine 

 to confirm the observation made by former writers, that 

 the outer membrane of the sarcina cells gives a cellulose 

 reaction with iodine and sulphuric acid, or with a solution 

 of iodine and chloride of zinc. If a little fluid contain- 

 ing sarcinae is placed on a slide, and a drop of Schultze's 

 solution of iodine and chloride of zinc is added to and 

 mixed with it, and if a cover glass is placed on the 

 fluid, the outer membrane of the cells is seen after some 

 time to present a distinctly reddish violet colour. Aniline 

 dyes, which are as a rule very greedily taken up by the 

 sarcinae, and must therefore be employed in very dilute 

 solutions, stain the contents of the cells. Nuclei cannot 

 be demonstrated in the cells. 



For the present it is doubtful whether this Sarcina 

 ventriculi is identical with the Sarcina lutea described 

 above, and which is everywhere present. Comparative 

 cultivations and comparative measurements of the size of 

 the individual cells are as yet wanting ; the fact that in 

 Sarcina lutea distinct cubical arrangement of the cells 

 occurs in gelatine and potato cultivations, points for the 

 present against any such identity. 



There are many statements (varying somewhat with Occurrence of 

 regard to the size of the cells and the composition of 

 the packets,) as to the occurrence of sarcinae in other 

 parts of the human and animal body, in the sputum and 

 pulmonary tissue, in the urine, in the blood, &c., as 

 well as outside the body on the most various nutritive 

 substrata. In the first mentioned cases it is probable 

 that micrococci arranged in fours, especially micrococcus 

 tetragenus, have been mistaken for sarcinas. Whether 

 in the other cases other species of sarcinae than those 

 described here have been present cannot in the mean- 

 time be decided. Zopf has found in the caecum of Zopf's Sarcina 

 domestic fowls a species called by him Sarcina in- mtestinalis - 

 testinalis, the colonies of which, however, do not form 

 cubical packets, but plates composed of tetrads corre- 

 sponding to the vegetative form merismopedia, but 

 eventually arranged in several superimposed layers and 



