278 MICRO-ORGANISMS AND DISEASE [chap. 



teids is a suitable nutrient medium for the bacilli ; they 

 grow abundantly at all temperatures between 15° and 43° C, 

 best between 25° and 40° C. They elongate and divide 

 rapidly, and the bacilli grow out into long curved and 

 peculiarly twisted filaments which often form bundles, the 



Fig. 107- — Impression Specimens of young Colonies of Bacillus Anthracis 



ON Gelatine. 



Low magnification. 



individual filaments being twisted round one another like 

 the strands of a cable. 



The bacillus anthracis offers some very characteristic 

 features in cultivations. In gelatine plate cultivations 

 made of the blood (previously well diluted with neutral 

 salt solution or broth, on account of the large number of 

 bacilli present in the blood) already after twenty-four to 



