BACTERIAL SPORES I. A STUDY IN HEAT RESISTANCE AND DORMANCY

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Abstract
In heat resistance determinations the spores of an aerobic bacillus, isolated in pure culture from under-sterilized evaporated milk, gave regular and constant results without dormancy or delayed germination when heated and subcultured in evaporated milk. Duplicate spore suspensions, heated in water and subcultured in standard nutrient broth, gave irregular results. It is significant that this organism is peculiarly adapted in its enzymic function to the environment supplied by milk. This suggests that extreme variability in spore response after heating often may be due to lack of specific favorable conditions rather than to inherent properties of variability. Because of tendencies toward dissociation this spoilage organism was thought to be a relatively stable variant of a common aerobic species, B. vulgatus, which it resembles.