BACILLUS TETANI. 333 



to a bacillus, which we have verified. According to 

 Schwarz, there is only a single terminal flagellum! 



Staining Properties. — Stains well by Gram's method. 



Requirements as Regards Oxygen. — When freshly 

 cultivated from the animal body (from wounds from which 

 tetanus has originated, from nails, etc. , which have caused 

 tetanus), it is always an absolute anaerobe. After long 

 cultivation in the stab (deep culture) the organism often 

 gradually becomes less susceptible to oxygen. Cultivation 

 is facilitated by the presence of certain saprophytes, which 

 grow when oxygen is admitted. Recently Carbone and 

 Perrero (C. B. xviii, 193) have succeeded in cultivating 

 virulent tetanus bacilli from the bronchial and tracheal 

 mucus in a case of rheumatic tetanus, where absolutely no 

 injury was to be found anywhere. The bacilli thrived 

 much better and more luxuriantly aerobically, but in pure 

 culture were no longer virulent. In the same place are also 

 found references to the literature regarding earlier obser- 

 vations of aerobic tetanus cultures (Belfanti). Kamen 

 (C. B. xviii, 513) and Ferran (C. B. xxiv, 28) made sim- 

 ilar observations. 



Intensity of Growth and Relations to Tempera- 

 ture. — Grows moderately rapidly, best at 36°-38°, and 

 at 14° growth no longer occurs. 



According to v. Hibler, the growths upon artificial nu- 

 trient media are the more luxuriant and sturdy, and 

 the liquefaction of gelatin the more vigorous, the less 

 pathogenic the organism is. Strongly pathogenic cultures 

 often produce very slight growths. The findings of Tiz- 

 zoni and Cattani have been similar. 



Gelatin Plate. — (a) Natural size: At first minute, white, 

 punctiform colonies, which, upon sinking into the medium, 

 become surrounded with a transparent gray zone of lique- 

 faction (44, iv ; see also 45, vi). 



(b) Magnified sixty times: Usually the colonies have a 

 yellowish-brown, very crumbly center, from which there 

 extends first a rim of short hairs; later innumerable, 

 intertwining, interlacing, corkscrew-shaped threads. The 

 older the colony, the more developed, longer, and more 

 irregular these outgrowths become, and often they break 

 up in a crumbly manner (44, in). 



