Printed in Great Britain 35 Chemical Composition and Antigenic Structure of Cell Walls

14 comparison has been made between the chemical composition of the cell walls of strains from the genera Corynebucterizcm, Alycobacterium, Nocardia, Actiwmycrs and Arthrobacter, and the antigenic composition of the same cell-wall fractions as judged by an agglutination test.,4 common antigenic component was identified in all those strains of ' corynchacteria, mycohacteria and nocardias which have arabinose and galactose as their principal cell-wall sugars. Some strains o € corynebacteria, and 3 strains of h70cardia pelletirri which have a different pattern of cell-wall components, appear to lack this cell-wall antigen. The antigen was not present in thc cell walls of 8 strains o € actinomyces and 6 of arthrobacter. Seven of the 8 strains of actinoniyces had a cell-wall composition identical with that previously described for Actii70nzyces imwlii, and these 7 strains formed a homogeneous group serologically: the other actinomyces strain differed in cell-wall wall composition and its cell walls did not agglutinate with tlie ' israelii ' serum, nor did those or any of the 6 strains of artlirobacter