VIBRIO PROTEUS. 395 



It is supplied with a single flagellum at one of its 

 ends, and is, therefore, motile. 



Fig. 75. 



I 



Vibrio proteus, Finkler-Prior bacillus, from culture on agar-agar twenty- 

 four hours' old. 



It, like the comma bacill us, readily undergoes degen- 

 erative changes under conditions unfavorable to growth, 

 and presents the variety of shapes grouped under the 

 head " involution-forms." According to Buchner, this 

 is especially the case when the medium in which they 

 are growing contains glucose (5 per cent.) or glycerin 

 (2 per cent.). 



Cultural Peculiarities. — On gelatin plates the 

 development of its colonies is far more rapid, and lique- 

 faction far more extensive, than in the case of the 

 cholera spirillum. After twenty-two to twenty-four 

 hours in this medium at 20° to 22° C. the average size 

 of the colonies is about double that of the comma bacil- 

 lus. The colonies are darker and denser and do not 

 present under the low lens the same degree of granula- 

 tion and subsequent lobulation, and they do not become 

 serrated or scalloped around the margin as is the case 

 with Koch's organism. After twenty-two to twenty- 

 four hours they are usually nearly round, regularly 

 granular, and more or less sharply defined. (See Fig. 

 76, a. ) At times they may show indefinite markings 



