An experiment with Sarcina ventriculi. 



Proceedings of the Section of Sciences, Kon. Akademie van Wetenschappen, Amster- 

 dam, Vol. XIII, 1911, p. 1237 1240. Verscheen onder den titel Een proefneming 

 met maagsarcine in Verslagen Kon. Akademie van Wetenschappen, Wis-en Natuurk. 

 Afd., Amsterdam, Deel XIX, 1911, biz. 1412 1415. 



Some years ago I presented a paper concerning a method to obtain and cultivate 

 an anaerobic fermentation Sarcina from garden soil 1 ). As the microscopic 

 image and the dimensions of the thus obtained organism corresponded in all respects 

 with the Sarcina of the stomach 2 ), of which Suringar 3 ) has given so exact a 

 description, I already then tried to prove their identity by experiments, similar to 

 those with garden soil, with material containing stomach sarcina, which I owed to 

 Professor van Leersum at Leiden. These experiments, however, failed. A later 

 one, made at Leiden after my indications, proved likewise unsuccessful. 



My supposition that the cause of the failure might have been a too strong 

 aeration of the infection material by which the anaerobic stomach sarcina had lost 

 all its vegetative power, induced me to pay special attention to this point at renewed 

 experiment for which Professor van Leersum again afforded me an opportunity 

 in the Academic Hospital at Leiden. 



It was proved that my supposition had been right: when transferring the 

 contents of the stomach with the sarcina to a fit culture liquid, so quickly that with 

 the air might be considered as excluded, it was possible to make the growth and 

 fermentation proceed vigorously. 



The experiment was managed as follows. 



Some bottles of about 130 c.m. 3 were filled with boiling malt extract quite freed 

 from air by previous boiling. The malt extract was prepared by soaking about 20 g. of 

 grist of kiln-dried malt in 80 g. of water, saccharifying one hour at 63 C., boiling 

 and filtering. Some bottles were acidified with phosphoric acid to 5 cm 3 N per 



*) Proceedings of the Meeting of 25 February 1905 p. 580. Archives Neerlandaises 

 Ser. 2, T. 9. page 199, 1905. 



2 ) Discovered by Goodsir, History of a case in which a fluid, periodically ejected 

 from the stomach, contained vegetable organisms of an undescribed form. With a 

 chemical analysis of the fluid by Wilson. Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, 

 T. 57, p. 430, 1842. Wilson asserts he has found acetic acid in the gastric juice, but 

 does not speak of lactic acid, which is in fact produced by Sarcina ventriculi. 



8 ) De Sarcine (Sarcina ventriculi Goodsir), Leeuwarden 1865. 



