The individual organisms show at times a widely open, slightly spiral form, which was more apparent in hanging-drop preparations made from bouillon cultures, where the organisms had been comparatively undisturbed. This appearance was also noted at times in the stained sections of soured muscular tissue, where the organisms were stained in place. The organism possesses no motility. It stains with the ordinary aniline dyes and by Gram’s method. SPORE FORMATION. The organism develops large, terminal spores, which are at first oval, but when fully developed are perfectly round and measure from 1.5 to 2 μ in diameter. Spores develop rapidly in the egg-pork medium at 20° to 25° C., fully developed spores being noted in from five to seven days. At ice-box temperature (8° to 10° C.) partly developed spores were noted in the egg-pork medium at 10 days and fully developed spores at 2 weeks. Occasional spores were noted in old agar and gelatin cultures, but abundant spore formation was seen only in the egg-pork medium. No spores were noted in bouillon cultures, even at 10 weeks. RESISTANCE TO HEAT AND CHEMICAL AGENTS. In its vegetative form the bacillus is killed at 55° C. in 10 minutes. The spores survive a temperature of 80° C. for 20 minutes, but are killed at 100° C. in 10 minutes. When sodium chlorid and potassium nitrate were added to glucose-pork broth in varying amounts, it was found that 3 per cent of sodium chlorid or 3 per cent of potassium nitrate was sufficient to inhibit completely the growth of the bacillus at room temperature (20° to 25° C.). While the growth of the bacillus was inhibited by sodium chlorid and potassium nitrate as just stated, it was found that very much stronger solutions of the two salts failed to destroy the bacillus. Thus it was found that the bacillus or its spores retained their vitality after an exposure of 30 days in a solution containing 23 per cent of sodium chlorid and 6 per cent of potassium nitrate. GAS PRODUCTION. The organism splits glucose, but not lactose or saccharose. That it possesses the power of splitting muscle sugar was shown by the formation of gas in Smith fermentation tubes containing ordinary neutral bouillon without the addition of any sugar.