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On the Nature of the "Cohesive Factor" in Spontaneous Agglutination of Bacteria

Especially Considering the Interfacial Surface Tension

From Department of Laboratories, Highland Hospital, Rochester, New York

Abstract

Introduction. This study purports to make inquiry into the physico-chemical nature and methods of combating the marked cohesion exhibited by many bacteria. As the studies of Northrup and DeKruif (1) have shown, cohesion plays an important part in the well known phenomenon of spontaneous agglutinability which interferes in serologic work with such strains. In previous papers (2, 3, 4) we have shown for the first time that the factor of cohesion may be intimately associated with the hereditary mechanism of the bacterial cell. Stable variants could be bred from certain large pleomorphic forms arising from the agglutinable strain, proving conclusively that physiologic differences may so arise in pure lines of bacteria. The primitive sexual nature that one of us (Mellon) has shown elsewhere for certain of these forms readily explains such physiologic differences, thus entitling them to an evolutionary rating instead of the involutionary one customarily attached to them.