THE STRUCTURE OF BACTERIA. 43 



related to the ray-fungus. Coppen Jones has 

 subsequently confirmed these results, and has 

 made it appear likely that this mould possesses 

 a kind of fructification resembling chlamydo- 

 spore-formation. Its mode of branching also 

 speaks for its mould nature (Fig. 20). In 

 spite of these facts, physicians have continued 

 to call this organism the tubercle bacillus. 

 This would be a matter of indifference if it 

 were not for the unavoidable confusion brought 

 about by the persistence likewise of Koch's 

 totally inaccurate figure. But a gradual 

 change of opinion seems to be coming about, 

 and very recently Hayo Bruns ' and Semmer 2 

 have confirmed the pleomorphism of the tuber- 

 cle bacillus. 3 



Occasionally branching is observed, too, 

 among organisms which are presumably true 

 bacteria, as Metschnikoff has discovered in the 

 case of the comma-bacilli of Asiatic cholera, C. 

 Frankel in the so-called diphtheria bacilli and 

 Semmer in the bacteria of glanders which, as 

 arthrosporous species, do not belong at all to 

 the bacilli. Eijkman 4 has found branched 

 bacteria in the molasses fermentation of rice 

 (Fig. 22). Up to the present it has not been 



1 Centralbl. f. Bakt. XVII., 1895, P- 8l 7- 



2 Deutsche Zeitschr. f. Tiermedizin, XXI., p. 212. 



8 See also Marpmann, Centralbl. f. Bakt. XXII., 1897, p. 582. 

 4 Centralbl. f. Bakt., XVI., p. 97. 



