426 APPLICATION OF METHODS OP BACTERIOLOGY 



When studied in pure culture, all of them are at once 

 distinguished from bacillus tuberculosis by the following 

 group characteristics: they are of relatively rapid growth, 

 there being usually an abundant development on glycerin- 

 agar-agar after twenty-four to forty-eight hours at body- 

 temperature; they grow well but less rapidly at ordinary 

 room-temperature — i. e., at 18° to 20° C; they grow well 

 in litmus-milk, and, as a rule, produce alkali that causes 

 the color to become a deep blue; the growth on agar-agar 

 is dry, shrivelled, and wrinkled in appearance, and of a soft, 

 mealy consistency in some cases (Holler's grass bacillus 

 II, Rabinowitsch's butter bacillus, for instance), while in 

 others it is more membranous, as in the case of Moller's 

 timothy bacillus. We have never seen in these cultures 

 the hard, coarse granules so common to cultures of bacillus 

 tuberculosis; on glycerin-agar-agar some of them, namely, 

 the timothy bacillus of Moller and its varieties, grow with 

 a distinct orange color, while others, the grass bacillus II 

 of Moller, the butter bacillus of Rabinowitsch, and their 

 closely allied varieties, begin as a grayish-white deposit 

 which may ultimately become of a pale or even distinct 

 salmon color. 



When pure cultures of them are injected into such animals 

 as rabbits or guinea-pigs, some of them have no effect, and 

 others cause lesions of more or less importance, the result 

 being dependent upon the quantity employed and the mode 

 of inoculation. By subcutaneous or intraperitoneal injec- 

 tion of pure cultures the result is usually negative. Occa- 

 sionally the superficial lymphatic glands in the neighborhood 

 of the site of inoculation may be inflamed and purulent. 

 This we have seen only after subcutaneous inoculation. 

 If pure cultures be injected into the peritoneal cavity along 



