12 



ioo cm 3 , some others to 10 cm 3 N, and others were not acidified at all. The acidi- 

 fication was applied as the experience with the sarcina of the soil had taught that 

 this organism endures a high degree of ahidity much better than all other microbes 

 occurring in the soil, so that the same might be expected with regard to the stomach 

 sarcina if this were indeed identical with it. The further course of the experiment 

 confirmed the correctness of this expectation too. 



The bottles destined fort the experiment were cooled after closing to about 

 40 C. and only opened at the moment the infection material was at hand, which 

 consisted in the contents of the stomach of a person suffering of stenosis oesophagi. 

 About 5 cm 3 of it was introduced into each bottle and that so quickly after the pum- 

 ping out of the stomach, that the material had no time, neither to be saturated with 

 air nor to be cooled considerably below the temperature of the body. Microscopically 

 a great many sarcines were to be recognised, other microbes being hardly to be 

 found. It is true that many yeastcells occurred, but they proved dead and originated 

 evidently from the yeast used for the preparation of the bread-porridge which the 

 patient had eaten. Rests of potatoes and rice were also recognised in the contents. 



Before proceeding the following observation may be mentioned here. 



Directly after the pumping out of the stomach a little bottle was also quite filled 

 with the thus obtained contents only, closed with a cork and placed in a thermostat 

 at 37 C. The result was that in this bottle, already after a few minutes, so vigourous 

 a fermentation set in that the cork was thrown off. As microscopic examination 

 proved that in this way a very pure Sarcina fermentation was obtained, this simple 

 experiment had for the first time demonstrated that the stomach Sarcina can be 

 nothing else but an anaerobic fermentation sarcina. 



The acid titer of the clear filtrate of the contents was, according to Professor 

 van Leersum, 3.8 cm 3 N per ioo cm 8 , with phenolphtalein as indicator, whilst 

 free hydrochloric acid seemed quite absent, so that the acid must chiefly have been 

 the lactic acid secreted by the sarcina itself, which is in fact very well possible, as 

 at laboratory experiments the sarcina of the soil grows readily in somewhat 

 saccharified meal-mashes and can form therein about 4 cm 3 N lactic acid per ioo cm 3 . 

 The striking purity of the sarcina fermentation in so heterogeneous a mass as the 

 stomach contents, in which neither lactic acid ferments nor alcohol yeasts were to be 

 found, might have been explained by the presence of free hydrochloric acid, this acid 

 being much better tolerated by the sarcina than by the other microbes. But as this 

 acid seemed to be quite absent, the said pure development of the sarcina in the 

 stomach, all other organisms being excluded, is not yet quite clear. But we return 

 to our chief experiment. 



The bottles prepared as described, arrived at Delft at a temperature of about 

 25 C. and were directly placed in a thermostat at 35 C. The result was that in all 

 without exception, so as well in absence of acid as with 5 and 12 cm 3 N phosphoric 

 acid, already after some hours a distinct fermentation was visible. By and by it 

 increased in vigour and after about 18 hours the sarcina had so much multiplied, 

 that at the bottom of the bottles a thick layer of the so characteristic microbe had 

 deposited, from which an abundant current of fermentation gases, consisting of car- 

 bonic acid and hydrogen, mounted upwards. This state continued about 24 hours 

 before the fermentation fell considerably. 



