594 Microscopic Organisms in Blood of Man and Animals, [part hi. 



scattered throughout the preparation. An hour having been spent in the examination 

 of this slide, it became apparent that the bacilli were more numerous on it than when 

 the examination commenced. It was then set aside in a moist chamber. 



A similar slide was prepared consisting of just a trace of the blood mixed with fresh 

 aqueous humor, and placed in the same chamber. 



On the following morning this slide, to which the half per cent, salt solution had 

 been added, was re-examined, and it was found that the filaments had grown greatly in 

 length and somewhat in thickness (Plate XLl, Fig. 10) ; in some instances the filaments 

 extended across the field of the microscope. All the filaments were motionless and 

 almost translucent, quite devoid of granularity, and it was only in some places that a 

 joint could be distinguished. No refringent molecule appeared in any of these long 

 filaments, but there were some short, pale, transparent rods rolling about in the pre- 

 paration, and in these glistening bodies were found (Plate XLI, Fig. 12). Some of these 

 rods, or segments, were 8/i long, and contained a bright blue (as seen with Hartnack's 

 No. 9 immersion objective) " spore," 2/Lt in length by lya in width, and other segments, 

 about the same length, contained two. Mixed with these were short, translucent staves, 

 with a distinct joint, some with two " spores," separated by a partition, and others 

 shorter (4'5/i,) with only one. By the next day the filaments were broken down and 

 the preparation consisted chiefly of a multitude of active BacteriuTn termo. 



The other slide, which had been prepared with aqueous humor, was likewise 

 examined on the following day. The filaments were not so long as in the other 

 preparation, and there appeared to be a decided tendency towards cleavage into small 

 cuboid pellets of plasma (Plate XLI, Fig. 11, a). Some of the filaments, though well 

 preserved at one end, were seen to be undergoing the process of fission at the other, 

 each fragment being equal to 1 — 1-2/j, in its longest diameter . It seemed as if the 

 4 to 5yu,-segments, of which the filaments were composed, had first become freed from 

 the thread, and had, instead of giving rise to a "spore," undergone fission (Fig. 11, 6). 

 In other cases cleavage of this kind took place whilst the individual segments 

 maintained their linear arrangement (Fig. 11, c). In some instances it seemed as if 

 the two first halves of the originally 4 to 5yw.-segments had each become elongated 

 (and correspondingly thinner) and undergone further division, thus forming four more 

 or less spherical plastides (Fig. 11, d). When the whole filament had undergone such 

 a process and the plastides had retained their linear arrangement, it presented the 

 appearance of a rosary chain (Fig. 11, e). It was ascertained that four of the plastides 

 forming a part of the particular chain sketched were equal to the length of one of 

 the segments of the original filament, viz., S/j,. 



It will thus be seen that filaments of bacilli may disappear, at least, in two ways : 

 (1) by giving rise to minute highly refractive, long-oval molecules, the filaments them- 

 selves becoming at first transparent, and then, apparently, disappearing more or less 

 completely ; and (2) by undergoing cleavage, and giving rise to minute plastides. These 

 may, occasionally, be observed to present a rosary-chain arrangement, but usually their 



