NOTES AND MEMORANDA. 
351 
In cultivations of B. termo prepared in this way, and kept at a 
temperature of 30° C., I made out that, under certain conditions, the 
rods, instead of undergoing fissiparous division, lengthened into fila- 
ments, in which in due time spores appeared, which, having been free 
for some time, subsequently germinated into short slender rods. . . . 
I next directed my attention to Micrococcus, in order, if possible, 
to make out whether it was a distinct organism, or whether it was 
simply a phase of the life-history of some common Bacterium, e. g. 
B. termo. After making numerous preparations, I at last succeeded 
in getting a cultivation in which only Micrococci were present. The 
cultivation was made by adding to a drop of humor aqueus from a 
fresh ox’s eye a minimal quantity of pus from a newly opened 
abscess on the point of a calcined needle. For three days there was 
no indication of organisms, but on the fourth, small moving particles 
were visible, which, when examined with a No. 12 immersion (Hart- 
nack), were seen to be either round, oval, or dumbbell-shaped, and 
often in groups of two and four. 
A long and careful study proved that the different forms were 
all phases of the same organism ; the oval forms became dumbbell- 
shaped, and then divided into two round bodies, similar to, but 
smaller than the sporules of Bacillus anthracis. The two round 
bodies moved actively about till they separated from each other, when 
each became dumbbell- shaped and divided as before. . . . 
Though kept under observation for three weeks, not one of the 
round or oval organisms present ever germinated into a rod. . . . 
Hence, having failed to find Micrococcus developing into bacterial 
rods, it may, in the meantime, be inferred that it is a distinct form ; 
or just as Torula may be an arrested phase of some Penicillium-\\\Q 
organism, so may Micrococcus be the spore of a Bacterium which has 
either altogether lost its power to germinate, or can only do so under 
very peculiar conditions. That Micrococcus closely resembles Torula 
will be at once apparent. 
If the oil be removed by blotting paper from between the glass 
ring and the covering glass of a preparation made as above described, 
or if the covering glass be fractured without being displaced, the 
cultivation liquid rapidly evaporates, and the remains of what a few 
minutes before were active organisms are in great part left adhering 
to the under surface of the covering glass. Preparations treated in 
this way may be either subjected to high or low temperatures, or, when 
protected by a glass cap, may be left in the ordinary atmosphere. 
The result of desiccation was ascertained by infecting flasks contain- 
ing sterilized organic infusions. Such flasks infected with rods desic- 
cated at 20° C. remain sterile, but flasks infected with desiccated 
spores soon teem with Bacteria, and flasks infected with desiccated 
Micrococci soon teem with round, oval, and dumbbell-shaped organ- 
isms, leading to the conclusion that desiccation destroys bacterial 
rods, but that, though continued for weeks, it has no influence on 
spores or Mici'ococci. Micrococci and the spores of B. termo are not 
destroyed by desiccation in a small protected atmosphere, it may be 
further inferred that they retain their viability when dried in the 
