Halophilic Bacteria. 



321 



Owing probably to the lateness of the season the cross-fertiliza- 

 tion experiments were unsuccessful. 



However, the following results were obtained in the self- 

 fertilization of sea-urchin egg fragments which indicate that the 

 size of the nucleus in the swimming larvae depends directly upon 

 the initial size of the nucleus in the fertilized egg fragment whereas 

 the size of the larva bears no direct relation either to the size of 

 the nucleus or to the initial amount of cytoplasm in the fertilized 

 egg. Mature eggs were deprived of their nuclei by cutting them 

 out together with a minimum amount of cytoplasm. The non- 

 nucleated fragments were about 4/5 the size of the entire eggs. 

 These, when fertilized, developed into dwarf larvae of about half the 

 size of the control and with abnormally small nuclei. Other eggs 

 were deprived of more than half of their cytoplasm. These, upon 

 fertilization, developed into dwarf larvae of about half the size of 

 the control but possessed nuclei equal in size to that of the control. 



148 (1895) 

 Halophilic bacteria. 



By WILLIAM W. BROWNE. 



[From the Department of Biology, The College of the City of New 



York.] 



The salt-fish industry of the United States suffers a large annual 

 loss as a result of the salt fish developing a red coloration during 

 the summer or when stored under warm moist conditions. Work 

 undertaken by the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries has demonstrated 

 that the red coloration is due to the growth of two microorganisms 

 whose origin is the solar evaporated sea salt with which the fish are 

 cured. The coloration may vary from a pale opaque pink to a 

 deep transparent crimson due to the harmonious intergrowth of a 

 spirochete producing a pale pink coloration and a bacterium pro- 

 ducing a transparent red coloration. Likewise their separation 

 into pure culture is difficult. These organisms exhibit very de- 

 cided helio-, thermo-, and halophilic characteristics. The optimum 

 concentration of salt for growth forms is saturation, growing lux- 



