A METHOD FOR PRESERVING REFERENCE SPECIMENS OF ACTINOMYCETES

possible difference in sulfhydryl content between alkali degraded wool and gram positive bacterial membranes on the one hand, and intact wool as well as gram negative bacterial membranes on the other, referred to the cell membrane only and not to the organism as a whole. Since Mittwer and Bartholomew's recent data apply to the whole cell, they have not disproved our inference as to the part played by sulfhydryl groups in the gram staining mechanism. Part of Widra's (J. Bacteriol., 71, 689-702, 1956) work might well serve as an example to illustrate our point. The unior bipolar granules of E. coli are revealed to the author "to be lipoprotein and to contain a greater concentration of SH-positive protein than the remainder of the cell"; whereas Bergersen (Widra, 1956) "has provided evidence that the granules in Bacillus megaterium... are associated with the cell membrane."