8POROGENIC GRANULES. 21 



looked upon as spores. (Compare Fig. 4, a, b, c. ) In 

 water, this shrinking rapidly disappears, and also under 

 the prolonged action of saline solution. 



Migula (A. K., Bd. i), simultaneously and independently, reaches 

 the same opinion as A. Fischer regarding the very large Bacillus oxal- 

 aticiis, a spore-forming variety related to the hay bacillus. It happens 

 especially in this that in the pressing outward of the protoplasmic 

 layer, the central fluid space becomes distinct ; in dehydrating media 

 it becomes smaller; in water, larger. 



While the botanists have hitherto sought in vain for a 

 true nucleus, Arthur Meyer would recognize it in small, 

 single, oval granules, staining with Ruthenium red and 

 potassium iodid (Flora, 1897, Band 84, 185). Compare 



a 5 c 



a, Spirillum undula. 6, Bacillus Solmsii. c, Vibrio cholerse. 

 Fig. 4. Plasmolysis (after A. Fischer). 



also the hitherto scarcely studied observations of A.Wagner 

 (C. B. xxni, 433), according to which nuclei were easily 

 stained by primulin and hot Bordeaux red. 



In the interior of bacterial cells there are found, after proper 

 staining, very many varieties of peculiar granules, which 

 Babes, who discovered them, named metachromatic 

 bodies (i. e., staining differently from the cell-body). 

 Ernst, the first accurate investigator of these bodies, called 

 them nuclei or sporogenic granules. 



While I refer to the literature of Babes (Z. H. xx, 412), which is 

 rich in controversy, I give only the seductively clear view of one of the 

 latest investigators of the subject, R.Bunge. Bunge (Fort, der Med., 

 xin, 813 and 853) distinguishes : 



1. Ernst's granules. They stain blackish-blue when treated with 

 warm Loffler's methylene-blue, washed in water, and after-stained 

 with Bismarck brown. These granules are entirely absent in many 



