-days-old culture on beer-wort-agar gave an interesting
reaction. The bacillar threads are in places Gram-negative, in others
Gram-positive, and bear small club-like swellings (see Fig. 14). Results
similar to these were also obtained with cultures of _Bacillus matzoon_
(Weigmann and Gruebner) and also with _Bacillus acidophilus_.

Neisser's method of staining failed to give such good effects by the
examination of fresh maya, as did an alcoholic aqueous solution of
methylene blue in showing up the granules of the organisms. Again,
Grixoni[74] found, but did not isolate, a similar granule-forming
organism (_Bacterium sardous_) in Sardinian gioddu. As already
mentioned in the description of leben, Rist and Khoury found a long
bacillar lactic ferment (_Streptobacillus lebenis_) which also exhibited
the irregular greyish white hairy colonies and high optimum temperature
characteristic of this group. On account of the similarity in form,
staining reactions, temperature requirements, and cultural growth of the
organisms described by Emmerling, Dueggeli, Weigmann, Grixoni, and Rist
and Khoury, Kuntze is inclined to regard them as belonging to one single
group of lactic ferments. According to him the granule formation is
rather variable, and may be induced or suppressed by cultural methods.
Not only do organisms of this group produce far more acid than the
normal lactic bacteria; they are also more resistant to acid, and are
able to develop in milk to which 0.5 per cent. hydrochloric acid has
been added. A comparatively high percentage of alcohol seems to
encourage growth, and this was obtained in milk containing 4 per cent.
alcohol. This would no doubt tend to explain the phenomenon observed by
Kuntze that milk is not so rapidly fermented by organisms of this group
as when cultures of diplococci and yeasts are added. Since organisms of
this group would seem to be widely distributed, the question of their
natural habitat arises. Luerssen and Kuehn were unsuccessful in their
search for such organisms in Koenigsberg milk, but Leichmann records the
occurrence of a long bacillus (_Bacillus lactis acidi_) in milk that had
spontaneously soured at 112 deg. to 120 deg. F. This organism, too, showed
characteristic growth on agar media, and produces laevo-rotatory lactic
acid. The examination of calves' stomachs showed, according to Kuntze,
only occasional long bacilli, but inoculation of sterile milk and
incubation at 100 deg. F. with re