284 



BACTERIOLOGY. 



gelatine * (Fig. 107). Occasionally a little isolated 

 spot develops, from which rays extend in all direc- 

 tions, like the silky filaments of thistle-down. 

 The filaments are more easily observed with a 

 magnifying glass. In a more solid nutrient- 

 gelatine the growth appears only as a thick 

 white thread. As liquefaction of the gelatine 

 progresses, these appearances rapidly 

 disappear, and the growth subsides as 

 a white flocculent mass (Plate V., Fig. 

 3). In exhausted culture-media, and 

 sometimes in the blood, filaments are 

 seen in a state of degeneration. This 

 has also been observed in sections of 

 the kidney, etc., of a rabbit inoculated 

 with the anthrax bacillus, which had 

 died of septicaemia the 

 morning. 



Test-tube cultivations in nutrient 

 agar.- Cultivated upon a sloping sur- 

 face of nutrient agar-agar a viscous 

 snow-white layer is developed (Plate 

 puRE C curivA- XIV., Fig. i). Without access of air 

 BACILLUS AN- no cultivation can be obtained, the 

 NUTRIENT bacilli being aerobic. This can be 

 GELATINE. (] emons trated by embedding a piece 

 of lung or spleen pulp containing bacilli in nutrient 

 agar-agar (p. 137)- No growth of the bacilli takes 

 place. 



* The Authorj Lancet, 1885. 



following 



