The oxidation of phenol by certain bacteria in pure culture

In the course of investigations on the effect of various antiseptic substances on bacterial sewage filters, it was found that solutions of pure phenol could be oxidised on filters of this description. It was further found that the phenol apparently exerted a selective action on the bacteria present in the filter, only three or four types of organism appearing in the filtrates. Of these about half were liquefying organisms, identified as B. Liquefaciens fluorescens. At first it was thought that the main non-liquefying, or extremely slowly liquefying, organism was B. fluorescens non-liquefaciens, on account of the apparently fluorescent yellow colonies it produced; subsequent investigation showed that this was not the case (see not at end of paper). It is therefore referred to in the paper simply as the chromogenic organism.