402 BACILLI OF NO KNOWN PATHOGENIC PROPERTIES. 



cultivations the growth is not so characteristic, hut there 

 also a row of short isolated processes is very gradually 

 formed, these processes passing out from the whitish 

 layer which appears along the track of the needle. On 

 potatoes a dirty yellow layer of moderate extent, and 

 with a smooth surface, is produced, and the portions of 

 the potato around the borders of this layer show a dark 

 colour. It occurs not uncommonly as an accidental 

 impurity on potatoes. 



Of other bacilli not unfrequently met with in Gottin- 

 gen the following may be mentioned : 



Bacillus ramosus Uquefaciens. 



Branched These are fairly large, slowly moving bacilli with 



forming blunt ends. They form on gelatine plates very charac- 

 baciilus. teristic colonies ; the youngest, when lying deeply in the 

 material, present under a low power the appearance of 

 roundish dark discs, the borders of which seem as if 

 surrounded by hairs ; the same appearance can also be 

 seen in the superficial colonies, which are for the most 

 part oval or pear-shaped. With the naked eye we also 

 observe that a sharply defined funnel-shaped depression 

 has been formed by a limited liquefaction of the gelatine. 

 Even after several days this liquefaction has not extended 

 any further, but the sharply defined, deep circular funnel, 

 2 to 3 mm. in breadth, is surrounded by several concen- 

 tric zones of varying breadth and distinguished from 

 one another to some extent by their colour, these zones 

 having on the whole a greyish-white ground glass appear- 

 ance. On a black base these various zones can be par- 

 ticularly well seen. In puncture cultivations a slight 

 funnel-shaped depression, accompanied by liquefaction, 

 forms at the entrance of the needle ; beneath this funnel 

 the track of the needle shows a number of branches 

 which pass off at right angles, the uppermost extending 

 furthest into the gelatine; as we pass deeper these 

 branches become shorter. At a later period the lique- 



