256 BACTERIOLOGY 



Bacillus subtiliformis. Bienstock found, as a constant 

 inhabitant of human faeces, a bacillus the morphological 

 characters of which strongly resemble those of Bacillus 

 subtilis, except that motility is wanting and the rods are 

 always connected in long filaments. A luxuriant fatty 

 coating of a whitish-yellow colour develops upon agar. 

 When spores form, the rods are distended in the centre to 

 a spindle shape. 



Bacillus albuminis. The same observer very often en- 

 countered a micro-organism in faeces, which possesses the 

 power of energetically decomposing albumin, and to which 

 he gave, in consequence, the name Bacillus albuminis. 

 The rods are fairly long and show a marked motility, 

 that part of the bacillus from which the spore divides off 

 being always foremost during movement. A whitish 

 layer, with the lustre of mother-of-pearl, develops on agar. 



Bacillus cavicida. Brieger isolated from faeces and putrid 

 substances a bacillus which has the property of de- 

 composing saccharine solutions and generating propionic 

 acid. The rods are short, being but twice as long as their 

 diameter, and liquefy gelatine into a viscid fluid. On 

 plates there develop white colonies with beautiful concentric 

 rings resembling the scales upon the back of a tortoise. 

 A dirty yellow deposit forms on potatoes and on serum. 

 Subcutaneous injections have an extremely poisonous 

 action upon guinea-pigs, often causing death even within 

 a few hours. 



Micrococcus tetragenus concentricus. The author found 

 in the liquid evacuations of a person suffering from gastric 

 dilatation cocci which were commonly united in tetrad form. 

 The elements are small, round and motile, stain readily 

 with all the different aniline colours, and thrive upon the 

 various nutrient media at present used in bacteriological 

 research. Gelatine is not liquefied. On the plate several 



