280 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LIV. No. 1395 



ular nucleus and indefinite granules. There 

 were many red corpuscles and more especially 

 nuclei of laked red corpuscles mingled with 

 these, but little fibrin. In this exudate and 

 especially in the crevices between masses of 

 exudate great clouds of gram negative bacilli 

 could be seen. The same description applies 

 to the lungs of Ancistrodon, Zamenis, Pity- 

 ophis, Chelonia imbricata, et cetera. 



The lungs of the anacondas presented a 

 slightly different appearance, for the gram 

 negative bacilli tend to be collected in masses 

 in the alveoli and densely surrounded by leu- 

 cocytes and red corpuscles in a disintegrated 

 condition so as to form round balls. The 

 large leucocytes are filled with conspicuous 

 granules which stain purple with the Gram 

 stain and with Wright's stain and are probably 

 to be regarded as basophilic granules. 



So, too, the lungs of Tupinamhis teguexin 

 showed round nodules or masses of cells clus- 

 tered round a central clump of gram negative 

 bacilli. 



In the lungs of Heloderma the exudate in 

 the alveoli was composed of a dense pink stain- 

 ing granular coagulated material with abun- 

 dant clumps of gram negative bacilli usually 

 enclosed in phagocytes. 



The lung of Chrysemys picta presented a 

 dense exudate of closely packed leucocytes 

 with nuclei of red corpuscles and with great 

 numbers of diffusely scattered gram negative 

 bacilli. In this case the alveolar walls were 

 much thickened and infiltrated with fluid and 

 with leucocytes. 



No especial alteration of the bronchial walls 

 nor of the coarser supporting tissue of the 

 lungs could be observed. The abdominal or- 

 gans were in all cases apparently normal, and 



as a rule the animals were in a good state of 

 nutrition. 



Cultures made from heart's blood and 

 lungs gave in practically every case luxuriant 

 growths of a small gram negative bacillus 

 when incubated at 23° C. Only in the case 

 of Thalassochelys Garetta and one alligator 

 were the bacilli somewhat larger. 



Five of these strains were grown in broths 

 containing various sugars for comparison with 

 results shown in the following table. 



Growth produced sediment in all tubes ex- 

 cept those with maltose inoculated with 2 and 

 4 where there was pellicle formation. 



From the above table it will be seen that 

 Nos. 1 and 3 agree in acid and gas formation 

 when grown in the specified sugars, while 2, 

 4 and 5 differ among themselves and also 

 differ from 1 and 3 in their powers of sugar 

 fermentation and gas formation. When grown 

 on gelatin liquefaction was produced by 4 

 and 5 but not by 1, 2 and 3. 4 also produced 

 gas. 



From several normal garter snakes studied 

 as controls the cultures of heart's blood and 

 lungs were sterile except in two cases in 

 which occasional colonies of a quite different 

 thick gram negative bacillus were found. 



A rabbit was immunized with four injec- 

 tions of culture 4, and eight days after the 

 last injection the serum of this rabbit agglu- 

 tinated the homologous strain completely in a 

 dilution of 1-60 but showed no agglutination 

 with nine other strains. 



Intratracheal injections of cultures 4 and 

 6 were made in garter snakes and two spe- 

 cies of Chrysemys and were followed by pneu- 

 monia exactly resembling that in the animals 

 from which the cultures were taken. The 



