172 A MANUAL OF BACTEEIOLOGY 



GLOSSARY OF TERMS 



Agar hanging block, a small block of nutrient agar cut from a poured plate 

 and placed on a cover glass, the surface next the glass having been first touched 

 with a loop from a young fluid culture or with a dilution from the same. It is 

 examined upside down, the same as a hanging drop. 



Amoeboid, assuming various shapes, like an amoeba. 



Amorphous, without visible differentiation in structure. 



Arborescent, a branched, treelike growth. 



Beaded, in stab or stroke, disjointed or semiconfluent colonies along the line 

 of inoculation. 



Brief, a few days, a week. 



Brittle, growth dry, friable under the platinum needle. 



Bullate, growth rising in convex prominences, like a blistered surface. 



Butyrous, growth of a butterlike consistency. 



Chains, short chains, composed of 2 to 8 elements ; long chains, composed of 

 more than 8 elements. 



Ciliate, having fine, hairlike extensions, like cilia. 



Cloudy, said of fluid cultures which do not contain pseudozooglceee. 



Coagulation, the separation of casein from whey in milk. This may take 

 place quickly or slowly, and as the result either of the formation of an acid 

 or of a lab ferment. 



Contoured, an irregular, smoothly undulating surface, like that of a relief map. 



Convex, surface the segment of a circle, but flattened. 



Coprophil, dung bacteria. 



Coriaceous, growth tough, leathery, not yielding to the platinum needle. 



Crateriform, round, depressed, due to the liquefaction of the medium. 



Cretaceous, growth opaque and white, chalky. 



Curled, composed of parallel chains in wavy strands, as in anthrax colonies. 



Diastasic action (same as diastatic), conversion of starch into water-soluble 

 substances by diastase. 



Echinulate, in agar stroke, a growth along line of inoculation, with toothed or 

 pointed margins ; in stab cultures, growth beset with pointed outgrowths. 



Effuse, growth thin, veily, unusually spreading. 



Entire, smooth, having a margin destitute of teeth or notches. 



Erose, border irregularly toothed. 



Filamentous, growth composed of long, irregularly placed or interwoven 

 filaments. 



Filiform, in stroke or stab cultures a uniform growth along line of inoculation. 



Fimbriate, border fringed with slender processes, larger than filaments. 



Floccose, growth composed of short, curved chains, variously oriented. 



Flocculent, said of fluids which contain pseudozooglcepe, that is, small adherent 

 masses of bacteria of various shapes and floating in the culture fluid. 



Fluorescent, having one color by transmitted light and another by reflected 

 light. 



Gram's stain, a method of differential bleaching after gentian violet, methyl 

 violet, etc. The + mark is to be given only when the bacteria are deep blue or 

 remain blue after counterstaining with Bismarck brown. 



