442 APPLIED BACTERIOLOGY 



long straight bacilli, often forming long jointed threads. 

 Thickness, -8 /a ; average length, 4 to 8 /a, but very variable ; 

 threads of 20 to 30 fj. may be seen. No spontaneous move- 

 ments seen. No flagella demonstrable. 



Spore formation : Very scanty and difficult to obtain in 

 cultures ; but it must occur, since in all cases the organism 

 was obtained from material which had been heated to 80° C. 

 for ten minutes. 



This organism, which is a strict anaerobe, has the following 

 cultural characters : 



Formated Agar. — Surface growth on agar-agar, con- 

 taining 0*5 per cent, of sodium formate, in an oxygen-free 

 atmosphere ; in one to two days there is a delicate, semi- 

 transparent, grayish growth of confluent colonies, with 

 smooth or wavy edges, which later show fern-like and 

 dentate outgrowths. 



Grape-Sugar Gelatine. — Stab cultures show scanty dotted 

 growth in twenty-four hours, extending to within | inch 

 from the surface. . In forty- eight hours the growth is con- 

 fluent, white, opaque, and somewhat filamentous in texture. 

 Growth proceeds slowly, and liquefaction appears from the 

 second to the fourth day. The gelatine is usually only 

 partially liquefied even after several weeks. Gas formation 

 does not appear, as a rule, till the fourth or fifth day ; 

 later, the gas extends up the needle track, and commonly 

 bursts laterally through the gelatine to the side of the tube, 

 about I inch from the surface, and so up to the surface. 

 Along this track the growth rapidly passes to the surface, 

 where it appears as a very viscid, grayish material, full 

 of gas-bubbles. Old cultures show varying liquefaction of 

 the gelatine, which after a time becomes clear, with a 

 dense white deposit of bacilli. The latter remain un- 

 altered for a long time, and do not rapidly break up. 

 Spores are, however, hardly ever seen in them. Cultures 



