13 



My supposition that the earlier experiments had only failed because the stomach 

 contents had been too strongly cooled and aerated during the transit from Leiden 

 to Delft was thus proved to be well founded, and now all doubt is excluded about the 

 identity af the soilsarcina af the hydrogen fermentations and the sarcina of the 

 stomach. 



It is of interest still to note here that in this experiment the addition of acid 

 to the nutrient liquid had proved superfluous, as the fermentation had gone on also in 

 the bottles without acid. In these latter bottles, however, many lactic-acid strep- 

 tococci and lacto-bacilli were visible already after 18 hours' cultivation, which was 

 not at all the case in the bottles with phoshoric acid. Only the latter could thus be 

 used for the continuation of the fermentation by inoculation into a new quantity of 

 culture liquid, without the chance that the sarcina might be overgrown and expelled 

 by the lactic-acid ferments. Likewise as with the sarcina of the soil, by some repeated 

 transfers into the described medium, acidified with phosphoric acid to 13 cm 3 N per 

 loocm 3 , it was possible within the course of three days to obtain so pure a culture 

 of the sarcina, that inoculation into the malt extract without acid was successful, not 

 any other microbes coming to development. 



The thus obtained fermentations have become very vigorous and are not to be 

 distinguished from the best fermentations with the soil sarcina. 



Now that the identity of the latter and that of the stomach is ascertained, still 

 the question exists how it feeds and multiplies at the low temperature and under the 

 other conditions of life of the relatively cold soil, which must evidently be quite 

 different as well from those of the stomach contents as from those of the described 

 nutrient liquids, so rich in carbohydrates and various nitrogen compounds, and at 

 temperatures between 35 and 40 C. 



The answer to this question I hope to give later. That the sarcina should only 

 accidentally occur in the soil and the mud of ditches and not multiply there, cannot 

 be admitted on account of the very common occurrence of this organism ; near the 

 Laboratory at Delft, for example, the sarcina could easily be found to a depth of 

 70 cm in all earth-layers, even in so small quantities of soil as o.i to 0.5 g. 



Why the sarcina develops so easily in the diseased stomach is in my opinion 

 connected with the readiness with which this organism grows in meal-mashes, sup- 

 ported by the absence of hydrochloric acid which under normal circumstances inhibits 

 all microbic growth in the stomach. The general occurrence of the sarcina is perhaps 

 best shown by the following experiment. If some coarsely ground rye is mixed with 

 water and placed in a thermostat at 30 to 35 C. it will the next day be found in a 

 strong coli-aerogenes fermentation. If then this mass is carefully examined with 

 the microscope many packets will be found of the sarcina in a state of very acitve 

 multiplication. They clearly originate from the dust deposited on the surface of the 

 corn at the reaping, the sarcina being quite well adapted to endure severe drying. 



Although the sarcina of the stomach, in itself harmless, can at most be 

 troublesome by the evolution of hydrogen 1 ), it should still be observed that deve- 

 lopment of this microbe is impossible in absence of carbohydrates, so that at a flesh 



*) The periodical vomitting observed in some cases of stomach sarcina may be 

 connected with the accumulation of hydrogen, formed in the stomach. 



