158 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



sugars in 0'5 per cent, solution in peptone broth, and 

 milk is unchanged after seven days' incubation. 

 Gelatine is liquefied in thirty-six hours. Morphologic- 

 ally it is a stout curved bacillus which shows longer 

 straight forms. It is Gram-negative. 



Bacillus B : derived from the ulcers of II and III, 

 and identical with the liquefying bacillus obtained from 

 the water sample. 



This organism is closely allied to A in its character- 

 istics as regards growth at different temperatures. It 

 grows best at 20° C, less well at room temperature, and 

 apparently not at all at 37° C. Even at room tempera- 

 ture it loses its viability upon solid media in 5-6 days 

 and must be frequently sub-cultured. Its appearance on 

 solid media is very like that of B. coli, clear, transparent, 

 only becoming at all clouded at the bottom of the tube. 

 It liquefies gelatine within forty-eight hours. Morpho- 

 logically it is a slight slender bacillus, about the same 

 length as A, and also shows some tendency to curve. It 

 is Gram-negative. 



Bacillus C. This differs from A and B in not 

 liquefying gelatine. It was derived from the heart 

 blood of II and from the sample of water. In shape and 

 size it resembles A, and is Gram-negative. 



Smears were made from ulcer, liver, and blood of I, 

 and the accompanying micro-photographs (PI. II, figs. 

 1-3) show the distribution of the bacilli in these. Since 

 this fish had been dead at least two days when examined, 

 the tissue might have become invaded with intestinal 

 organisms and the bacilli seen may represent secondary 

 invaders. But it is significant that the cultures obtained 

 from this fish correspond with those from the others. 

 Further, no bacilli were observed in smears made from 

 liver and blood of two other fish, not ulcerated, which 



