28l 



with entire omission of the acid, show that then also vigorous growth and fermen- 

 tation may occur. We thus see how wide the limits are of the life conditions of the 

 sarcine, as soon as competition with all other microbes is quite out of question. 



The discovery of this certainly unexpected fermentation has sprung from the 

 working out of the general question which organisms of the soil can develop in a 

 sugar-containing culture fluid in presence of an acid and with imperfect aeration. At 

 temperatures of about 30 C. and lower, alcoholferments. Mucor racemosus and 

 Oidium prove to be the strongest, but then already a few sarcines are observed. At 

 about 40 C. most alcoholferments of garden soil, besides Mucor and Oidium can no 

 more compete with the sarcine and the lacto bacilli, which then become predominant. 

 This being fixed the last steps which led to the culture of the fermentation sarcine 

 alone, were the recognition of the obligative anaerobiosis, and of the superiority of 

 the resistence of the sarcine with respect to anorganic acids compared with that of 

 Lactobacillus and the butyric ferments. 



Above, already, I pointed to the perfect correspondence of the small-celled form 

 of the fermentation sarcine to the description which S u r i n g a r gives of the 

 stomacal sarcine, and I suppose that in the cases of non-cultivable Sarcina 

 ventricitli, of which, for instance, de Bary speaks 1 ), there should really be thought 

 of the fermentation sarcine. This view is supported by different observations in the 

 older literature, cited by S u r i n g a r. But still more convincing is my accumulation 

 experiment, which proves that the conditions for the existence of this sarcine are 

 just of a nature to render its life in the stomach possible. 



It will be easy to obtain certainty thereabout by a repetition of this experiment, 

 not with garden soil for infection material, but by using the stomacal contents of such 

 a case of stomacal sarcine. The not cultivability of de B a r y may mean the same 

 as anaerobiosis, for it is well known how difficult it is, even at the present time, to 

 cultivate anaerobics if the particulars of their life conditions are not exactly known. 



For the rest I do not doubt of the precision of F a 1 k e n h e i m's '-) and M i - 

 g u 1 a's 3 ) observations, who have seen aerobic colonies of micrococci originate from 

 stomacal sarcine. It is true that I for my part have not succeeded in confirming this 

 observation with regard to the fermentation sarcine, but for other species of Sarcina 

 I have, with certainty, stated the transition into micrococci, and with various anae- 

 robics, although not belonging to the genus Sarcina, I have seen now and then co- 

 lonies originate of facultative anaerobics, which in all other respects, corresponded 

 to the obligative anaerobics used for the cultures. Therefore this modification also 

 seems possible for some individuals of the fermentation sarcine. Accumulation cr 

 transfer experiments with stomacal contents will however only then give positive 

 results, if these are used when still in fermentation: with long kept material nothing 

 can be expected. 



Already the older observers 4 ) as Schlossberger (1847), Simon (1849) 

 and Cramer (1858) have tried, although in vain, by a kind of accumulation ex- 



! ) Vorlesungen fiber Bacterien, xe Aufl. pg. 96, 1887. 



2 ) Archiv f. experiment. Pathologic und Pharmacologie. Bd. 10, pg. 330, 1885. 



3 ) System der Bacterien. Bd. 2, pg. 259, 1900. 



4 ) Cited from Suringar (I.e.)- 



