SEA-FISHEEIES LABORATORY. 157 



Ulcers. — Scrapings of four ulcers from three fish 

 were examined. The gelatine cultures obtained were 

 diluted with normal saline and plated out upon gelatine 

 with a view to discovering whether the original cultures 

 were pure or a mixture of organisms. 



From I a pure culture was obtained : the ulcers of 

 II and III produced a mixed culture of two organisms, 

 one of which was identical with that from I. All 

 liquefied gelatine within forty-eight hours. 



Heart Blood. — From I a bacillus was obtained which 

 was identical with the bacillus of the ulcers. From II 

 was obtained a growth of a bacillus which was at once 

 differentiated from the others by its inability to liquefy 

 gelatine, ^o growth was obtained from III. 



Liver. — I gave a bacillus identical with that derived 

 from the ulcer and blood of the same fish. No growth 

 was obtained from II, and no culture was taken from the 

 liver of III. 



Water. — Two distinct organisms were isolated. The 

 one closely resembled the organism obtained from the 

 ulcer of I and one of the organisms from the mixed 

 cultures given by the ulcers of II and III. The other 

 resembled the non-liquefying bacillus obtained from the 

 heart blood of II. 



Three organisms therefore have to be described : — 



Bacillus A : derived from the ulcers of all three fish, 

 and from the liver and heart blood of I. Upon agar this 

 gives a raised yellowish growth with clear transparent 

 edges. It grows well upon all ordinary solid media at 

 cold incubator temperature or at room temperature. At 

 37° C, in the warm incubator, the growth is scanty, 

 almost invisible on the few media upon which it exists, 

 and it loses its viability in two or three days at this tem- 

 perature. It has little or no action upon the common 



