BACTERIAL PROTEINS 25 



extraction with alcohol and ether, but now the 

 stain is easily removed by dilute acid. This be- 

 havior of bacterial cellular substance towards 

 basic analin dyes quite naturally suggests that 

 the former consists largely of nuclear material. 

 In my opinion this is strengthened by the stud- 

 ies of the cellular substance which I have out- 

 lined. Additional evidence in the same direc- 

 tion is not wanting. When sporogenous bac- 

 teria form spores or pass into the resting stage 

 the essential part of the bacterial cell is con- 

 tained in the spores and all spores and repro- 

 ductive cells consist in part at least of nuclear 

 material. Certain bacteria which do not form 

 spores pass into a granular state in which po- 

 tential life continues for a long time. For in- 

 stance, the bacillus of glanders, though an aspo- 

 rogenous organism, may retain viability for a 

 long time. Wladmiroff states that he found 

 these organisms in glycerine-bouillon tubes, 

 with the ordinary cotton plug capable of growth 

 after standing four years. The same is true of 

 the plague bacillus. This phenomenon is ex- 

 plainable only on the assumption that these ba- 

 cilli contain nuclein. However, assumption is 

 no longer necessary since nuclein, nucleinic acid 

 and their derivatives have been found in all 

 bacterial cells submitted to chemical study. I 



