Ward.— Some Thames Bacteria . 31 1 
form and his own as probably identical, and Lustig takes the 
same view. 
It may be worth while to raise the question whether the 
Sarcina- form and the Staphylococcus-ioxm of Micrococci are 
more than growth-forms of one and the same organism. If 
this turned out to be true, Schroeter’s Sarcina rosea — and 
possibly Menge’s Sarcina of red milk 1 is the same organism — 
would have to be examined in this connexion. 
Several of my micro-cultures in broth-drops showed, as we 
have seen, that this Micrococcus forms evident Sarcina- like 
groups when young and growing slowly, but that the 
botryoidal ( Stapkylococcus-Yike ) growth prevails later on 
when development is rapid. 
It is perhaps not incorrect to say that the few known forms 
of Sarcina all come from sources (acid media, air, water, &c.) 
which may be regarded as poor pabula for such organisms. 
In any case there is nothing absurd in the suggestion, because 
it is known 2 that Sarcina- forms may so alter their habits on 
certain food-media that the cells become isolated by dissolu- 
tion of the membranes and only single Micrococci , or (when 
dividing) Diplococci , are found, though the ‘ packet-form 5 can 
be obtained by another alteration of the food-medium. 
I regard the case as not only interesting, but of some 
importance, for no one would have been able to infer the 
existence of the two conditions without actual culture in 
hanging-drops. 
This form was easily revived on July 13 from an Agar 
culture of the preceding Aug. 14— i. e. eleven months — and 
soon came up normal. 
Its peculiar cherry red (cerise) colour and other characters 
were as before, and it was interesting to see how the differences 
between it and certain other red species — e.g. B.prodigiosus — 
were maintained. 
1 Central-bl. f. Bakt., VI, p. 596. 
2 E. g. Mace, 1. c., p. 364. 
