Our experience with the germination of spores of various species of clostridia, especially Clostridium botutinum, has led to conclusions that we believe warrant the consideration of investigators of this group of organisms and of the aerobic sporeformers as well. Pertinent observations have been made by previous authors, but it appears that all the recent available evidence on, and various aspects of, the dormancy problem have not hitherto been crystallized into one comprehensive concept. The

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... sential points already established (Morrison and Rettger, 1930a,b, for review of previous literature; Curran and Evans, 1937; Olsen and Scott, 1946; Wynne and Foster, 1948a; -Foster and Wynne, 1948) are these: (1) Colony counts from a spore suspension may be submaximum in a few days' incubation, and increase with time over prolonged periods. This indicates delayed germination and is a well-known phenomenon for both aerobic and anaerobic spores. This is the characteristic feature of classical dormancy. (2) The effect depends on the medium used, being marked in some and nonexistent in others. 1948]