APPENDIX B 
GLOSSARY OF TERMS 
Agar-hanging block, a small block of nutrient agar cut from the poured’ 
plate and placed on a cover glass, the surface next the glass having first been 
touched with a loop from a young fluid culture or with a dilution from the 
same. It is examined upside down, the same as a hanging drop. 
Ameboid, assuming various shapes, like an ameba. 
Amorphous, without visible differentiation in structure. 
Aborescent, a branched, tree-like growth. 
Beaded, in stab, or stroke, disjointed or semi-confluent colonies along the 
line of inoculation. 
Brief, a few days, a week. 
Brittle, growth dry, friable under the platinum needle. 
Bullate, growth rising in convex prominences, like a blistered surface. 
Butyrous, growth of a butter-like consistency. 
Chains, short chains, composed of 2 to 8 elements; long chains, composed 
of more than 8 elements. 
Ciliate, having fine, hair-like extensions, like cilia. 
Cloudy, said of fluid cultures which do not contain pseudozoogloeae. 
Coagulation, the separation of casein from whey in milk. This may take 
place quickly or slowly, and as a result of either the formation of an acid or 
of a rennet-like ferment. 
Contoured, an irregular, smoothly undulating surface, like that of a relief 
map. 
Convex, surface the segment of a circle, but flattened. 
Coprophil, dung bacteria. 
Coriaceous, growth tough, leathery, not yielding to the platinum needle. 
Crateriform, round, depressed, due to the liquefaction of the medium. 
Cretaceous, growth opaque and white, chalky. 
Curled, composed of parallel chains in wavy strands, as in anthrax colonies. 
Diastasic action, conversion of starch into water soluble substances by 
diastase. 
Echinulate, in agar stroke, a growth along line of inoculation, with toothed 
or pointed margins; in stab cultures, growth beset with pointed outgrowths. 
Effuse, growth thin, veily, unusually spreading. 
Entire, smooth, having a margin destitute of teeth or notches. 
Erose, border irregularly toothed. 
Filamentous, growth composed of long, irregularly-placed or interwoven 
filaments. 
Filiform, in stroke or stab cultures a uniform growth along line of inocula¬ 
tion. 
Fimbriate, border fringed with slender processes, larger than filaments. 
Floccose, growth composed of short curved chains, variously oriented. 
Flocculent, said of fluids which contain pseudozoogleae, that is, small 
adherent masses of bacteria of various shapes and floating in the culture fluid. 
