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SUMMARY: Experiments by the Thunberg tube technique have shown that tetrathionate can oxidize reduced Nile blue in the presence of tetrathionate-adapted cells of a Gram-negative coliform organism but not in the presence of cells lacking a developed tetrathionase system, viz. unadapted cells of the same organism and cells of Shigella sonnei. Concentrations of tetrathionate of the order of m/3200 and slight tetrathionase activity can be detected by the Thunberg tube technique, which may be useful also in investigating the effect of certain physical and chemical agents on the tetrathionase system. It appears that tetrathionate can act as a hydrogen acceptor for organisms capable of reducing it.