128 
FRANK 8. BILLINGS. 
regard to the action of alcohol in the dicolorizing of tissue 
specimens. 
When not too intensely colored, its protoplasm will be found 
to consist of two chemically different materials which differenti¬ 
ate themselves over the body of the cell, so that the two poles, or 
ends, are of a more or less intense blue, violet, green or red color, 
according to the tinction used, while the center of the body re¬ 
mains colored. That the outer cuticle, or capsule, of this organ¬ 
ism is composed of the same chemical elements as the plasma of 
its poles, is to be seen from the fact that a delicate line of the 
same color extends from each of the colored poles along the sides 
of the object to the other, embracing the uncolored substance or 
middle of the body. * * * * 
What has been said above as to the tinction reaction of the 
only true germ of American swine plague proper, can never be 
controverted when the same materials and methods are used. 
An intense degree of exposure to the coloring material will 
result in the clear space, or middle piece, of the cell-body also 
becoming colored, though not so intensely as the ends in gen¬ 
eral. It has been my experience that this uncoloring substance, 
under previously mentioned conditions, possesses somewhat more 
affinity for fuchsin and the red violets than for the blues and 
blue violet dyes. Methylen-green differentiates the protoplasma 
of this cell beautifully, but requires longer exposure than the blue 
and violet coloring materials. 
This non-refraction, uncoloring substance, is a secretion of the 
pole-ends. 
The pole-ends possess a much more intense degree of refrac¬ 
tion, in uncolored specimens, than the middle piece; in fact, when 
examined without the Abbe condenser, these objects look like 
two micrococci very near together, and at one stage of their de¬ 
velopment absolutely like dipplo-cocci, or when three or four are 
attached together, like an attempt at forming short chains of 
streptococci, though I have never seen them build continuous 
chains. With the Abbe condensor and a competent lens, the 
white, non-refracting substance can, however, always be distin¬ 
guished, save at one moment in the existence of this organism, 
