496 



Prof. J. C. Ewart. 



(2.) Numerous spores of fungi and cells of the yeast plant. 

 (3.) Spores similar to the spores of B. anthracis. 



On examining milk purchased from another dairy and milk sent 

 from the Oldmill Dairy on Wednesday, 6th April, after the alarm had 

 been raised about the milk, and the use of the cistern discontinued, it 

 was impossible to detect with the microscope either micrococci or the 

 spores of bacteria or fungi. 



2. Water from the cistern in the byre contained numerous yeast 

 cells, fungus spores, and a few micrococci, but I was unable to detect 

 any spores of bacteria. 



3. The infusion from the hay tank teemed with bacilli, ordinary 

 bacteria, micrococci, and "micrococci chains," and there were also 

 numerous filaments in process of development, and numerous yeast- 

 cells. 



4. Hay infusion recently made contained bacilli, bacteria, and micro- 

 cocci, but only a small number of yeast cells. 



5. The grains contained bacilli, bacteria, and micrococci, but 

 especially the cells of Torula. 



6. The soft centre of a turnip presented a few ordinary bacteria and 

 a few bacilli. 



Results of Cultivations. 



1. 3rd of April. Oldmill Milk. — On cultivating the milk referred 

 to above in aqueous humour the micrococci became very active, and 

 many of them assumed a dumb-bell shape, which indicated that they 

 were in process of multiplication. The spores previously observed 

 began to germinate and in a few hours fully developed rods made 

 their appearance. The bacilli, as is usually the case with B. 

 anthracis, remained motionless, any apparent oscillation resulting from 

 the active movements of the micrococci around them. In from fourteen 

 to twenty hours the bacilli began to lengthen, but, probably owing to 

 the abundant presence of micrococci, their development was arrested 

 in this and in all subsequent cultivations of the milk before they 

 reached the spore-bearing stage. 



On cultivating in the same way — (1) Milk sent from Oldmill on 

 the 6th April ; (2) Milk collected directly from two Oldmill cows in 

 clean stoppered bottles on the 27th April ; and (3) Milk from another 

 dairy (Cowie), no bacilli made their appearance ; there were, how- 

 ever, in (1) and (3) a few ordinary bacteria (B. termo ?) and 

 numerous micrococci. 



On cultivating the Oldmill hay infusion, the fresh hay infusion, 

 the grains and turnips, there was a considerable increase in the 

 number of bacilli, bacteria, and micrococci, and in the case of the 

 grains and Oldmill hay infusion a great increase of the Torula cells, 

 and many of the fungus spores germinated into branching filaments. 



