66o 



FUNGI 



For the more difficult ones (B. termo and E. lineola) more careful 

 arrangements are required. In dried specimens the flagella can be 

 readily demonstrated, and easily photographed, by staining them by 

 a special method introduced by Loffler (fig. 496). 



The germinating power of the spores of Bacteria may be brought 

 into operation at once on their reaching ripeness, or they may be 

 desiccated for an indefinite time, and again, on reaching suitable 

 surroundings, will germinate as before. This power is held in vari- 

 ous degrees by difterent forms, but the whole subject needs more 

 uniform and exhaustive inquiry. The spores of B. subtilis retain 

 their vitality for years if kept in a dry air, while those of 

 B. anthracis are stated by Pasteur to remain alive in absolute 

 alcohol ; l and Brefeld found their power to germinate uninjured 

 after the lapse of three ye*ars in a dry atmosphere. He also found 

 them proof against the boiling-point of water, and even a higher 



temperature, but he 

 found that fewer and 

 fewer survived in boil- 

 ing nutrient fluid until 

 the end of the third 

 hour, when all w r ere 

 destroyed. So Buchner 

 found that the same 

 spores were wholly 

 killed only after three 

 or four hours' boiling ; 2 

 w T hile Pasteur states 

 that groups of un- 

 certain spores can 

 withstand a tempera- 

 ture of 130 C. There 

 is, however, uncer- 

 tainty, because a want 

 of uniformity, in the 

 1,000, stained results from various 

 sources ; 20 to 25 C. 

 may be taken as the 



average degree of temperature at which these organisms will freely 

 germinate ; but J3. termo, for example, has been known to germinate 

 from 5-5 C. to 40 C. 



Nothing like ' conjugation,' or any other form of sexual genera- 

 tion, has yet been witnessed in any Bacteria ; and until such shall 

 have been discovered, no confidence can be felt that we know the 

 entire life-history of any one type. 3 When these facts are allowed 



. 496. Flagella of Typhoid Bacilli, x 1,000, sta 

 by Loffler's method. (Friinkel and Pfeiffer.) 



FIG. 496. 



1 ' Charbon et Septicemie,' Compt. Rend. Ixxxv. p. 99. 

 - Naegeli, Unters. uber niedere Pilze, 1882, p. 220. 



" As it seems unquestionable that among the higher Fungi ' conjugation ' often 

 takes place at a very early stage of growth, it seems a not very improbable surmise 

 that the ' granular spheres ' observed by Ewart in Bacillus and Spirillum, which 

 seem to correspond with the ' microplasts ' observed by Ray Lankester in his 

 Bacterium rubescens, may be a product of conjugation in the micrococcus stage of 

 these organisms. 



