284 MICRO-ORGANISMS AND DISEASE [chap. 



elements. Such torula forms occur also in ordinary 

 cultivations in fluid media at temperatures of 20" to 30° C, 

 but not by any means so often as at ordinary tempera- 

 tures and in a solid medium. Compare also the chapter 

 on General Characters of Bacilli. 



After a few days' incubation, no matter what the tempera- 

 ture is, many of the baciUi and their leptothrix-filaments 

 show signs of degeneration, consisting in the granular disin- 

 tegration and absorption of the protoplasmic contents of the 

 bacilli and their filaments, at first only here and there, but 



Fig III, — From an Artificial Culture of Bacillus Antmracis in Broth 



AFTER MANY DaYs' InCUDATION. 



The threads are swollen and curled up, and m many places the protoplasm has 



disappeared, leaving the sheath and septa distinct. 



Magnifying power 700. (Stained with Spiller's purple.) 



by-and-bye over longer pieces. Such bacilli and leptothrix- 

 filaments appear in such places as if empty. This is also 

 noticed in the bacilli of the blood and spleen of an animal 

 inoculated with anthrax, even at the point of death or soon 

 after death, if the number of bacilli is great. 



Another form of degeneration consists in the filaments of 

 bacilli becoming much curled and swollen, and finally 

 disintegrated into an amorphous debris. 



As long as the bacilli grow in the depth of a fluid they 

 never form spores, but when grown on the surface with free 



