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by Cornil to the genus Bacillus; at any rate, in the case 

 of organisms peculiar to human diseases. 



The genus Bacillus, according to Klein (Desmobac- 

 terium, Cohn), includes microbes in the form of more or 

 less elongated rods, which divide by fission into straight, 

 curved, or zigzagged chains, formed of elements generally 

 in contact by their square-cut edges, and which, may be 

 considerably elongated in the form of Leptothrix. 



Some of these, when isolated or in short chains, pos- 

 sess a flagellum at one extremity, and are consequently 

 mobile such is the case with Bacillus subtilis and most 

 of the bacilli of putrefaction but they lose this organ 

 of movement on passing into the state of Leptothrix. 

 Bacillus antliracis is always stationary, and devoid of 

 flagellum. The fact that there is in this genus a vibratory 

 cilium, and consequently motion, breaks down the barrier 

 between the genera Bacterium and Bacillus^ and con- 

 sequently justifies Cornil's view. 



The genera Spirillum (Spirolacterium, Cohn,) and 

 Spirochoete are much more rare, and have not given rise 

 to the same variations in nomenclature. 



We conclude by reproducing the classification of 

 Rabenhorst and Fliigge, as it is given by Cornil and 

 Babes, in order to serve as a convenient scheme for the 

 pathogenic bacteria iu which we are specially interested : 



