On Absorption of Phage by Bacilli

In previous publications a specific reaction of phage with crude carbohydrate containing bacterial extracts was demonstrated (1). Obviously the question arose as to the relationship of the specificity of the reaction with bacterial extracts as compared with the bacterial bodies themselves. Although numerous publications on absorption experiments of phage and bacteria are available, systematic investigations analogous to those on absorption of antibodies by bacteria are still lacking largely on account of technical difficulties incidental to absorption experiments, namely prolonged centrifugations or numerous filtrations required to obtain fluids for testing the residual phage. These difficulties were circumvented in the experiments here reported by making the tests in a manner similar to that employed in the demonstration of a reaction between phage and extracts of bacteria, i.e., by adding the test organism to the previously (non-centrifuged) incubated mixture of phage and constant amounts of heat-killed bacteria (one hour at °C.) of the several Salmonella species.