Dormancy in non - sporulating bacteria

"All stood amazed, until an old woman, tottering out from among the crowd, put her hand to her brow, and peering under it in his face for a moment exclaimed , 'Sure enough! it is Rip Van Winkle-it is himself. Welcome home again, old neighbour-Why, where have you been these twenty long years?"' lrving, W. An analogical "field" construct in cellular biophysics: history and present status. "These germs-these bacilli-are transparent bodies. Like glass. Like water. To make them visible you must stain them. Well, my dear Paddy, do what you will, some of them won't stain; they won't take cochineal, they won't take any methylene blue, they won't take gentian violet, they won't take any colouring matter. Consequently, though we know as scientific men that they exist, we cannot see them." Sir Ralph Bloomfield-Bonington. The Doctor's Dilemma.