38 



BACTEEIOLOGY. 



slightly curved, like an eye-lash. They can therefore be 

 designated as cilia rather than as flagella (Fig. 6 e, /). 



In many bacilli the flagella are very numerous, and are 

 diffuse, or distributed all over the surface of the cell. In 

 such cases a perfect fringe of delicate wavy lines can be 

 seen surrounding the organism. The Proteus vulgaris, 

 typhoid bacillus and the anaerobic bacteria are especially 

 well provided with flagella (Fig. 6 c). 



Flagella are especially abundant on fresh young 

 growths, about one day old. They disappear in old cul- 

 tures by being torn off. Usually, they also disappear just 

 before spore formation. This, however, is not the case 

 with anaerobic bacteria. The formation of whips depends 

 upon the composition of the soil. Thus, cultures of the 

 cholera and typhoid bacilli which have been grown on the 

 ordinary artificial media by the author for more than ten 

 years show scarcely any motion. It has been proposed to 

 employ the fact of the number and arrangement of whips 

 as a means of identification of species, but for reasons indi- 

 cated above this is not feasible. 



In 1890 Loffler observed in stained preparations and in 

 a living culture of the bacillus of symptomatic anthrax 

 enormous spindle-shaped spiral bodies, which he believed 

 to be formed like a braid of hair, by the twisting together 

 of a large number of the ordinary whips. Three years later 

 the author met with these same "giant- whips " while study- 

 ing a new anaerobic bacillus, and was also able to repeat- 

 edly demonstrate their presence in three other anaerobic 

 bacteria. In the same year Sakharoff met with these pecu- 

 liar forms in gelatin cultures of the B. Asiaticus. Recently, 

 A. Fischer has described giant- whips in several species, and 

 Sames has found the same forms in cultures of a motile 

 sarcine. The author, during the past year, has studied the 

 development of these enormous spirals in cultures of the 

 typhoid, coli, psittacosis, and icteroides bacilli. There is 



