ABSTRACTS 



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BACTERIOLOGY. — The characteristics of bacteria of the colon type 

 found ifi bovine feces. L. A. Rogers, William Mansfield Clark, 

 and Alice C. Evans, Journal of Infectious Diseases, 15: 100-123. 

 July, 1914. 



Previous work on a collection of the colon type from milk demon- 

 strated that the gas ratio and volume are constant under uniform 

 conditions; that, on the basis of the gas ratio and volume, the cultures 

 may be divided into two distinct groups; and that the correlation of 

 the fermentative ability with the gas ratio makes this distinction sharply 

 defined. 



This paper records the results of a similar study on 150 cultures 

 isolated from bovine feces. None of these cultures liquefied gelatin 

 and all but one formed indol from tryptophan. By the use of a simple 

 medium and exact methods of analysis, it was found that in 149 cultures 

 the CO2: H2 ratio varied only from 0.98 to 1.20. One culture only gave 

 a ratio identifying it with the high-ratio group, which made up 48 per 

 cent of the milk series. 



The 149 low-ratio (0.98-1.20) cultures were readily divided into two 

 groups, one of which fermented dextrose, saccharose, lactose, raffinose, 

 mannite, glycerin and dulcite, but almost invariably failed to ferment 

 starch, inulin and adonite, while the second group fermented adonite 

 and dulcite and failed to ferment saccharose, raffinose, starch and inulin. 



These groups agree almost perfectly with two groups which may be 

 formed from the low-ratio cultures isolated from milk. Special methods 

 failed to give evidence, with the exception of the single culture mentioned, 

 of the presence in bovine feces of the high-ratio group, which made up 

 about one-half of the milk collection. L. A. R. 



486 



