118 Germ of the Southern Cattle Plague. 
down upon, but when the eye- strikes the sides of the object, then we 
look through more material and, hence, see more color, just as when 
we look at a piece of window glass or a good glass slide. If we 
look directly through it, it is colorless, but if we turn it on edge 
and look at it, it has a more or less green shade, according to the 
quality of the glass. So according to the amount of exposure to the 
tinction, when not carried so far as to color the whole body of the 
germ, we have more or less visible coloring of the capsule, which 
can only be seen when we look through a considerable extent of 
substance, that is, on the sides of the object. Again, we may see 
two or three objects united together, all presenting the normal char- 
acteristics of full maturity. I have never yet seen more than three 
of these germs connected together (Fig. 2). In general they either 
appear singly or in pairs. In very old cultures these micro-organ- 
isms become thinner, more rod-like, and color more diffusely with 
the same degree of exposure to the tinction, and the white substance 
is either not visible at all or very faint (Fig. 3). Again, such old 
cultures are very replete in apparent micrococci, of various dimen- 
sions, which might lead one into the error of thinking that his cul- 
tures had become polluted. I call this last condition that of coccoid 
degeneration (Fig. 3). Or, we may see unusually long objects, the 
longitudinal diameter being twice or three times that of the mature 
organism, and the white, or uncolored, substance occupying a cor- 
responding extensive amount of space, while the dark, or colored, 
ends may be somewhat larger or of the same size as those of the 
mature object. This condition represents the first step in the develop- 
ment of these organisms, that is, they become longer, and more of this 
white substance appears (Fig. 4). 
The next step in the process of vegetative development is the 
_ separation of one of the pole or coccoid ends, which then becomes 
free, and for a moment is exactly round like a coccus, and, as in a 
hanging drop culture (to which I always add a very small amount 
of an aqueous coloring solution), one will naturally see a very large 
number of these coccoid objects on account of the fact that each 
individual present is continually going through the same process 0: 
multiplication. Here, again, one may see a condition or phenome- 
non that might be misleading. 
One of the coccoid ends having been separated, the other may 
still remain connected with the white material, and as evidence that 
the colored ends have a greater degree of specific gravity, as well 
