Organisms in Excrement of the Goat, dc. By Dr. Maddox, 751 



The rod organisms in the upper layer resembled those in the 

 diluted portion, but were far more numerous, and in very active 

 movement, the bend in the curved ones being used apparently as 

 an axis for locomotion. The bacteria had very little motion, the 

 fluid being most likely too slimy; no spores were visible at this 

 stage. - 



Hay was steeped for twelve hours in cold water and the liquid 

 sterilized by boiling ; when cold, a portion was added to the original 

 but diluted mixture and gently stirred, whilst another portion of 

 the hay infusion was infected from the former. All three vessels 

 were now left exposed to daylight and the ordinary temperature of 

 the room for a couple of days. He-examined, the long rods had 

 almost disappeared in the hay infusion that had been infected, and 

 chiefly very short rods could be found ; bacteria and infusoria were 

 also present. 



In the mixture simply diluted with distilled water, the rods 

 were now fewer and less active ; a pellicle on the surface was 

 crowded with motionless bacteria; the infusoria still abounded; 

 there was no offensive smell. The original fluid, or mixture, now 

 diluted with the hay infusion, was examined. It was densely 

 crowded with straight and curved rods of very variable lengths, 

 and a few spirilla were visible, some having only one-and-a-half 

 turns, others two to six; these were in active movement. In 

 Fig. 4 (PI. VII.) is represented the first notice of Spirillum in 

 the mixture. In different parts of the slide some single large micro- 

 cocci and also smaller double ones were noticed. The infusoria 

 still abounded, and the mixture had now a faint sickly odour. 

 Attention was confined to this mixture. After another twenty-four 

 hours the rods and spirilla appeared nearly equally abundant, some 

 of the latter having as many as thirty-three angular turns. The 

 curvatures, both in width and depth, differed considerably. These 

 organisms continued about matched for four days, when the 

 Spirillum got the upper hand, the number of rods lessening ; this 

 is fairly well shown in Fig. 5. The survival of the fittest was 

 evidently taking place, but at the same time also appeared another 

 organism contending for the mastery, viz. a very delicate mycelium 

 spreading in every direction through the fluid, which quickly 

 rendered all further observation useless. The fluid was, however, 

 kept for five weeks, and at the end of that period the rods and 

 spirilla had well nigh disappeared, and nothing could be found by 

 which to determine to what object the mycelium belonged. The 

 mycelium was in very long twisted threads not larger than the 

 rods, and at first I fancied they might be the rods in their filament 

 stage, but close examination soon showed this not to be the case, as 

 the threads had short outgrowths at very variable distances. 



In the excellent contribution upon the life-history of Spirillum 



3 e 2 



