158 SPECIAL BACTERIOLOGY 



suspected water is placed in sterile flasks, and to each sample 1 per cent, 

 alkali peptone (Witte's peptone is the best) and per cent, of common 

 salt is added. The peptone and salt are kept ready for use in sterile 

 solutions. The mixture, after its alkalinity is tested, is placed in the 

 incubator and examined and tested in the same manner as the previously 

 mentioned peptone water -culture method of Koch and Schotellius. 



SPIRILLUM OF FINKLER AND PRIOR. 



(Vibrio Proteus.) 



This vibrio was isolated from the dejections of patients with 

 cholera nostras which had been allowed to stand for some days, but 

 it has since been proven to possess no etiological significance in that 

 disease. To-day it is only of historical interest, the cultures being 

 transferred from tube to tube in the laboratory. 



Microscopical Appearances. It bears a great resemblance to 

 the vibrio of the Asiatic cholera, but the curved segments are somewhat 

 longer and thicker, and not so uniform in diameter, being often thicker 

 in the middle than at the poles. The spiral filaments are not so 

 numerous, and also shorter than those formed by the cholera vibrio. 

 In unfavourable media involution forms are common. 



Motility. Strongly motile, possesses a single flagellum at one end 

 (Monotricha). (See Photomicrograph, Plate II., Fig. 9, stained by the 

 author's orcein method). 



Staining Reactions. Stains with the ordinary aniline dyes, best 

 with an aqueous solution of fuchsin. 



Biological Characters. Aerobic and facultative anaerobic lique- 

 fying vibrio ; grows at ordinary room temperature. 



On Gelatine Plates small white punctiform colonies develop in twenty- 

 four hours, which under microscopic examination are seen to be finelv 

 granular and yellowish or yellowish-brown in colour ; the gelatine around 

 the colonies liquefies rapidly, and when the organism is abundant, lique- 

 faction is usually complete in twenty-four hours. Isolated colonies on 

 the second day form saucer-shaped depressions in the gelatine. 



In Stab Cultures liquefaction progresses much more rapidly than with 

 the cholera vibrio, a stocking-shaped pouch of liquefied gelatine appearing 

 in two days, the whole medium being liquefied in about a week ; a whitish 

 film forms on the surface of the liquefied medium. 



On Agar Media a moist shiny layer covering the entire surface is 

 quickly developed. 



On Blood Serum the growth is rapid and causes liquefaction of the 

 medium. 



