COMPOSITION OF MORPHOLOGICAL COMPONENTS 61 
dried residue of a water bacillus in the following amounts: xantlii*n, 
0.07 per cent; guanin, 0.14 per cent; adenin, 0.08 per cent. No hypo- 
xanthin was found. 
The amino-acids of bacterial protein have not been completely 
studied. The variable nitrogen content even of the same organism 
as it is grown in different media and under different conditions would 
suggest that quantitative determinations of nitrogenous substances 
would be somewhat unsatisfactory. Qualitati\'ely, so far as available 
data show, many amino-acids found in protein of higher animals and 
plants have been isolated or identified in bacterial cells. ^ These 
amino-acids appear to differ in amount in different organisms, and 
several have not been isolated at all up to the present time. Vaughan, 
Wheeler and Leach- conclude that the bacterial substance contains 
carbohydrates, nuclein bodies and polymers of mono- and diamino- 
acids. They are glyco-nucleoproteins. Kruse'' and Vaughan^ have 
arrived at the same conclusion. Bendix^ claims to have isolated a 
pentose from tubercle bacilli: this is characteristic of the nucleo pro- 
teins of plants. The analysis of 100 gm. of dried tubercle bacilli by 
Ruppel^ indicates the importance of the nucleins in bacterial proteins. 
Grams. 
Nucleic acid (tuberculinic acid) 8.5 
Nucleoprotamin 25.5 
Nucleoprotein 23.0 
Albuminoids (keratin, etc.) 8.3 
Fat and wax 26 . 5 
Ash 9.2 
Carbohydrates. — Glycogen or some similar carbohydrate, which is 
readily detected by the mahogany color it gives with iodine, has been 
reported^ in many bacteria, as has been stated previously, but it is 
extremely difficult to decide definitely whether it is limited exclusively 
to the cell membrane or scattered somewhat diffusely through the 
cytoplasm as well. 
Fat and Fatty Derivatives. — Fats, fatty acids, lipoids and waxes, 
which may l)e demonstrated by staining bacteria with Sudan III,^ 
Scharlach R, and osmic acid, occur in variable amounts in the tubercle 
bacillus and other acid-fast bacilli. The amount of these extrac- 
tives may be very great in the acid-fast group, varying from 26 to 40 
per cent of the total dry residue. Considerable discussion has centered 
around the distribution of these substances, many authorities claiming 
that the fats and waxes are contained in the cell wall of the organism, 
1 See Campbell: Amino-acid Content of Tubercle Bacilli, Am. Rev. Tuber., 1925, 
11, 452. 
2 Protein-split Products. ^ Allgemeine Microbiologic, p. 65. 
* Protein-split Products, p. 437. 
5 Deutsch. med. Wchnschr., 1900, 27, ISOA. 
^ Loc. cit. 
' Levene: Jour. Med. Res., 1901, 6, 135. Warkany: Ztschr. f. Tuberk., 1925, 
42, 184. 
8 Sata: Centralbl. f. all. Path., 1900, 11, 97. 
