126 The American Naturalist. [February, 
(trimethylamin). In some cases the escaping juice as well as 
the remaining pulp gave at first an acid reaction and subse- 
quently an alkaline reaction. 
(4) Pathological Histology—Under the microscope the fluid 
pulp appeared to be composed of starch grains, single cells of 
the potato, or groups of such cells, fragments of cell walls, rem- 
nants of protoplasm, and countless numbers of bacteria, chiefly 
in the form of bacilli, These measured 1.5-5.0 x 0.8, and 
were actively motile. Frequently they appeared as though 
composed of non-septate threads, or were in chains. The 
single rods were rounded at the ends, while not rarely the 
longer threads appeared to be narrowed toward the extremity 
(zugespitzt). Ellipsoidal forms, 1x2, appeared regularly 
among these bacilli. A roundish, strongly refractive body 
was visible in the protoplasm of these ellipsoidal forms. This 
represented the beginning of spore formation, as was shown by 
later and more exact investigation. 
(5) Direct Infection Experiments.—No direct infections. 
(II) Tue organism: Described as a bacillus but not named. 
I have been in the habit of calling this organism Kramer’s 
potato bacillus, and until such time as it can be re-studied and 
carefully compared with other gas and acid producing species 
it is probably best that it should remained unnamed. Some 
critical student of the species is certainly the only one who has 
any right to name it. We have had altogether too much of 
naming things without study, i. e. on the strength of the im- 
perfect descriptions of other writers. 
1. Pathogenesis : 
(A) Yes. 
(B) Yes. This was accomplished in the following manner. 
Wet rotten tubers having the skin still uninjured 
were cut open with sterilized knives and small quan- 
tities of the fluid pulp were transferred by means of 
a sterilized platinum loop into flasks closed by cotton 
plugs and half full of distilled, sterilized water, which 
was then well shaken to distribute the bacteria. To 
obtain a proper dilution definite quantities of this 10- 
fected water were transferred to similar flasks, each 
