476 THIRD PART.—BACTERIA OR SCHIZOMYCETES. 
or Mycetozoa. This would not affect the relations between the Endosporous and 
Arthrosporous Bacteria, or between the latter and the Nostocaceae; nor can there 
be a doubt that the Nostocaceae which contain chlorophyll and phycochrome are 
in any case further removed from the Flagellatae than the allied species of Beggiatoa 
and other arthrosporous forms, and that they therefore occupy the other extremity 
of the whole series, which has received the name of Schizophytes and is the more 
remote from the supposed point of departure. 
With respect to the coordination of the Endosporous Bacteria and the rest of 
the Schizophytes, we can only repeat what has been already said, that the final 
determination of the point must be deferred till we are in possession of more perfect 
knowledge of single forms. 

CHAPTER XI.—MOoDE OF LIFE OF THE BACTERIA. 
Section CXXXIV. Capacity of germination and power of resistance in 
the spores. All spores of Bacteria in which the point has been investigated are 
capable of germination from the moment that they are mature, provided that the con- 
ditions are favourable. If prevented from germinating they show wonderful power 
of resisting the external agencies which are usually pernicious or fatal to living 
organisms, and individual spores show this power in different degrees in different 
species. 
These points have not yet been sufficiently investigated in the Arthrosporous 
Bacteria. Kurth? found that the spores (‘cocci’) of his Bacterium Zopfii are killed 
in from 17-26 days, when dried in a moderately high temperature (37° C.) and 
then kept in an air-dry state at the ordinary summer temperature, while the vegetating 
rods of the same species died in 7 days when subjected to the same treatment. 
In a heated fluid their death-point is about 56°C. Similar small powers of resistance 
to desiccation and high temperatures would probably be found in most of the 
forms, such as Beggiatoa and Crenothrix, which are adapted to vegetate in water. 
On the other hand the spores of many endosporous forms are instances of the 
highest powers of resistance. Those of Bacillus subtilis retain their vitality for 
years when kept in an air-dry condition, and those of B. Anthracis will remain 
alive, according to Pasteur *, in absolute alcohol and after being exposed for 21 days 
to the influence of pure oxygen compressed by a pressure of ten atmospheres. We 
have no precise observations extending over larger periods of time, but Brefeld 
found the power of germination unimpaired after the lapse of three years when the 
spores were kept in an air-dry condition, after the lapse of one year when they had 
lain in water; and from these facts as well as on account of other characteristics to 
be noticed presently, we may safely assume that their powers of resistance are at 
least equal to those of the most resistent spores of Fungi (page 344). The spores of 

1 Bot. Ztg. 1883, 409. 
2 Charbon et septicémie (Comptes rendus, 85 (1877), p. 99). 
