140 REPORT OF DEPARTMENT OF BACTERIOLOGY OF THE 
Numerous trials were made by immersing in this sterile fil- 
trate sterile cubical blocks cut from fresh roots of carrot and 
turnip and from potato tubers and also cotyledons of young 
peas, either fresh or those which had been for some time in 
sterile broth. In all cases alike these tissues were softened 
with solution of the middle lamella as in the presence of the 
living organisms. The detailed record of a single experiment 
will suffice. 
In each of six tubes containing 10 c. c. of the sterile filtrate 
was introduced a carrot block about 3 mm. in diameter. At 
the end of twenty-four hours there was perceptible softening 
over the surface of these blocks and at the end of three days 
they were softened throughout. Potato blocks of similar size 
tested in the same way showed the first signs of softening on 
the fifth day and required ten days for complete softening. 
These experiments and other similar ones that might be 
cited, including .trials with razor sections under the miscro- 
scope, showed that the lamella-dissolving enzym was in solu- 
tion in the broth outside of the bodies of the bacilli. .The 
question arose, however, as to whether the filtrate possessed 
the full enzymic activity of the original broth. It is conceiy- 
able that the bodies of the bacilli contain much of the enzym 
which gradually diffuses into the external liquid even after 
their death, and also conceivable that the filter may retain 
some of the enzym which was diffused in the original broth. 
To gain information on these points the enzymic activity of 
the filtered sterile broth was compared at various times with 
unfiltered broth cultures and with cultures of broths sterilized 
by the addition of chemicals. In one series of trials thin razor 
sections from roots of each carrot and turnip were immersed 
in (a) culture broth sterilized by filtration, (b) culture broth 
sterilized by a 20% addition of chloroform, (c) solutions of 
alcoholic precipitate from culture broth. The solutions (b) 
and (c) acted about alike, whereas (a) required at least twice 
as long to disintegrate the tissues Similar trials made later 
using razor sections of turnip showed no difference of im- 
portance between the cultures containing the living organism 
