54 BACTERIOLOGY. 



The sarcinse divide more or less regularly in three 

 directions of space ; but instead of becoming separated 

 the one from the other as single cells, the tendency is 

 for the segmentation to be incomplete, the cells remain- 

 ing together in masses. The indentations upon these 

 masses or cubes, which indicate the point of incomplete 

 fission, give to these bundles of cells the appearance 

 commonly ascribed to them — that of a bale of cotton 

 or a packet of rags. (See Fig. 2, e.) 



The multiplication of bacilli is in the main similar to 

 that given for the micrococci. A dividing cell will elon- 

 gate slightly in the direction of its long axis ; an inden- 

 tation will appear about midway between its poles, and 

 will become deeper and deeper until eventually two 

 daughter-cells will be formed. This process may occur 

 in such a way that the two young bacilli will adhere 

 together by their adjacent ends in much the same way 

 that sausages are seen to be held together in strings 

 (Fig. 3,/), or the segmentation may take place more 

 at right angles to the long axis, so that the proximal 

 ends of the young cells are flattened, while the distal 

 extremities may be rounded or slightly pointed (Fig. 

 3, e). The segmentation of the anthrax bacillus, with 

 which we are to become acquainted later, results, when 

 completed, in an indentation of the adjacent extrem- 

 ities of the young segments, so that by the aid of 

 high magnifying powers these surfaces are seen to be 

 actually concave. Bacilli never divide longitudinally. 



"With the spore-forming bacilli, under favorable con- 

 ditions of nutrition and temperature, the same is seen 

 to occur during vegetation ; but as soon as these condi- 

 tions become altered by the exhaustion of nourishment, 

 the presence of detrimental substances, unfavorable 



