Abstract
CONTINUING the experiments of one of us on the action of radium bromide on plants, we have experimented on various bacteria. We find that, in the case of Bacillus pyocyaneus, B. typhosus, B. prodigiosus, and B. anthracis in agar culture medium the β radiations from radium bromide exercise a marked inhibitory action on growth. Exposure for four days at a distance of 4.5 mm. to 5 mgr. of radium bromide does not appear sufficient to kill the bacteria, but is adequate to arrest their growth and to maintain a patch on an agar plate, inoculated with any of these organisms, sterile. A broth tube, however, inoculated from this patch has in most cases developed the organisms, showing that while the growth is inhibited in the patch all the organisms there are not killed.
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DIXON, H., WIGHAM, J. Action of Radium on Bacteria. Nature 69, 81 (1903). https://doi.org/10.1038/069081b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/069081b0
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