196 
Journal of Agricultural Research 
Vol. I, No. 3 
Question of EndosporES. —No spores have been demonstrated either 
by staining or testing with heat. Vacuolated forms were seen in cultures 
stained with spore stains. Several tests with heat were made, bouillon 
cultures 2 to 6 months old being treated as follows: Two were boiled 
three minutes and two were kept at 8o° C. for 20 minutes; then transfers 
were made from both sets. These transfers were watched for nearly a 
month, but no trace of growth was seen. The transfers made before 
heating, as checks, showed a vigorous growth of the organism in two days. 
Prom these results it appears that spores are not formed by this bac¬ 
terium, since, if present, they would have been carried over after the 
death of the vegetative cell, and growth would have been apparent in the 
new transfers. The fact that the bacterium is quite easily killed by 
atmospheric drying points to the same con¬ 
clusion in regard to the absence of spores. 
Involution Forms. —Involution forms 
are not common, but a few Y-shaped and 
cross-shaped forms were noticed in old cul¬ 
tures grown in media not favorable *for the 
best development of the organism, such as 
beef bouillon containing 0.2 per cent of 
tartaric acid, or beef bouillon containing 0.1 
per cent of oxalic acid. Some were found 
Fig. 4.—Bacterium aptatum showing in ordinary media which had been placed 
flagella from a 2 -day-old agar culture; un der Unusual Conditions, 
stained with Loeffler’s flagella stain. 
Capsules. —No capsules have been dem¬ 
onstrated. The organism is viscid after growing three days on agar and 
five to seven days in bouillon. Ribbert’s and Richard Muir’s capsule 
stains were used. 
Zooglcele. —Pseudozoogloese occur in +15 bouillon, Fermi’s solution, 
bouillon containing salt, acids, and alkalies, and other liquid media in 
which the growth rises in a viscid swirl when the tube is shaken. When 
examined under the microscope, the viscid mass is found nearly always 
to be made up of short rods held in place by a network of gelatinous 
threads. Sometimes the mass is composed largely of the unsegmented 
filamentous bacteria (fig. 2,6). 
BEHAVIOR TOWARD STAINS 
The organism stains readily and uniformly in the ordinary basic 
aniline stains, such as methyl violet, gentian violet, saffranin, dahlia, 
fuchsin, and carbol fuchsin. It is not acid-fast and does not stain by 
Gram. 
cultural characters 
In general, the organism grows well upon many different kinds of 
artificial media, the most favorable for rapid and prolonged growth 
being +15 beef agar and bouillon, upon which it has been observed to 
live from 9 to 12 months. 
