526 



BIOLOGY OF THE MICRO-ORGANISMS. 



In the case of some pathogenic organisms, numbers 

 have heen obtained which differ considerably from the 

 above. Spores of the anthrax bacilli cultivated in nu- 

 trient gelatine in large vessels, containing 1 to 2 litres, 

 and collected after three weeks growth, showed, 

 according to Nageli, no myco-protein, but a peculiar 

 albuminoid body, which he has called anthrax-protein, 

 readily soluble in alkalies, but quite insoluble in water, 

 acetic acid, and dilute mineral acids; it contains no 

 sulphur.* 



Brieger t has obtained the following results with regard 

 to Friedlaender's pneumonia bacilli, which he culti- 

 vated on nutrient gelatine. He found 84*2 per cent, of 

 water; 1*74 per cent, of fat in the dry substance; in 

 the dry substance free from fat 30'13 per cent, of ashes ; 

 and in the dry substance free from fat and ashes 

 9*75 per cent, of nitrogen. The organic substances 

 gave on the whole the reactions characteristic of protein, 

 but they were not identical with Nencki's myco-protein. 

 Vandevelde J found on analysis of bacillus subtilis 

 no cellulose, but nuclein. 



According to these results the relation between the 

 albuminoid substances and the material resembling cellu- 

 lose, which in the case of the yeast fungi was in favour 

 of the former, is still more altered in the same direction in 

 the case of the fission fungi, so that the non-nitrogenous 

 materials pass completely into the background, and 

 albuminoid substances form almost the whole substance 

 of the fission fungi. There are, it is true, analyses of 

 other fungi by Nageli and Low, which differ markedly 

 Contradictory in part from the above results. A growth of micrococci 

 cultivated in tartrate of ammonia gave 10'65 per cent, of 

 nitrogen and 6'94 per cent, of ashes; on the other hand, 

 the vinegar plant, which consists of a tough jelly, in 

 which short rods are embedded, yielded 98*3 per cent, 

 water, and in the dry substance only 1*82 per cent. 

 N. and 3*37 per cent, ashes, so that in this case also 



* (hem. ber., vol. xvii., p. 260o. 

 t Zeitschr.f. physiol. Chtm., vol. is. 

 J Jbid., vol. viii. 



Relation 

 between 

 nitrogen and 

 carbon. 



