486 MANUAL OF DETERMINATIVE BACTERIOLOGY 



TRIBE IV. PROTEAE CASTELLANI AND CHALMERS. 



(Manual of Trop. Med., 3rd ed., 1919, 932.) 



Ferments glucose but not lactose with formation of acid and usually visible gas. 

 There is a single genus. 



Genus I. Proteus II a user.* 



(Hauser, Sitzber. d. phys.-med. Sozietat zu Erlangen, 1885, 156; Liquidobacterium 

 Jensen, Cent. f. Bakt., II Abt., 32, 1909, 337; Spirilina Hueppe, Wiesbaden, 1886, 

 146; Eisenbergia Enderlein, Sitzber. Ges. Naturf. Freunde, Berlin, 1917, 315.) From 

 Latin, having a changeable form. 



Straight rods. Gram-negative. Generally actively motile at 25°C, motility may be 

 weak or absent at 37°C, peritrichous, occasionally very numerous flagella. Generally 

 produce amoeboid colonies, swarming phenomenon, on moist medium. Marked pleo- 

 morphism characteristic only of very young, actively swarming cultures. Ferment 

 glucose and usually sucrose but not lactose. Three species in fermentable carbohy- 

 drates produce small gas volumes even after prolonged incubation and an occasional 

 culture does not produce gas. One species usually produces acid only. Urea de- 

 composed and trimethylamine oxide reduced by all species. 



The type species is Proteus vulgaris Hauser. 



Key to the species of genus Proteus. 



I. No action on mannitol. 



A. Acid and gas from sucrose. 



1. Acid and gas from maltose, 

 a. Indole formed. 



1. Proteus vulgaris. 



B. Acid and gas from sucrose (delayed). 

 1. No action on maltose. 



a. Indole not formed. 



2. Proteus mirabilis. 



C. No action on sucrose (ordinarily). 

 1. No action on maltose. 



a. Indole formed. 



3. Proteus morganii. 

 II. Acid, occasionally a bubble of gas, from mannitol. 



A. Acid from sucrose (delayed). 

 1. No action on maltose. 

 a. Indole formed. 



4. Proteus rettgeri. 



1. Proteus vulgaris Hauser. (Hauser, Trevisan, I generi e le specie delle Bat- 

 Sitzungsber. d. phys.-mediz. Sozietat zu teriacee, 1889, 17; Bacterium vulgare 

 Erlangen, 1885, 156; Bacillus proteus Lehmann and Neumann, Bakt. Diag., 



* Originally revised by Prof. M. W. Yale, New York State Experiment Station, 

 Geneva, New York, Nov., 1938; revised by Prof. C. A. Stuart and Dr. Robert Rusti- 

 gian, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, May, 1943. 



