ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 3."9 



bubble-like outgrowths appeared oil the surface, and these slowly grew 

 to large gas-containing bladders, which later ruptured. Indol reaction 

 was observed in pepton water cultures after three days, and gas forma- 

 tion occurred in glucose broth after two days ; a strong reducing action 

 was manifested by the addition of methylen-blue to the media ; the 

 production of H 2 S was never observed. It showed no pathogenicity for 

 warm-blooded animals, but Tritons, Lizards, Salamanders, and Tortoises 

 were found to be very susceptible, dying after three to four days ; the 

 susceptibility of frogs was variable, being greater in March and April 

 than in the summer months. 



Distribution of the Microbes in the Intestines of Infants.* — 

 H. Tissier finds that the bacteriological aspect of the meconium period 

 before the definite milk stools have become established, comprises three 

 phases : (1) an aseptic phase when the digestive tract is sterile, the 

 first bacteria commencing to appear only about the tenth to twentieth 

 hour ; (2) " phase d'infection croissante " commencing with the first 

 appearance of microbes before any attempt at alimentation has occurred, 

 and lasting to the middle of the third day ; it is preceded by a discharge 

 of epithelial cells from the mouth accompanied by cocci {Staphylococcus 

 albus), soon followed by a cocco-bacillus not staining by Gram (B. coli), 

 large rods (B. perfringms), slender rods (23. III. Bodella), diplococco- 

 bacilli not staining by Gram's method (B. perfoetens, B. lactis aerog.), 

 diplococci staining by Gram's method and sarcinse, and later B. mesen- 

 tericus, B. acidophilus and B. bifidus ; (:!) " phase de transformation," 

 which lasts 12 to 2-1 hours, during which the flora become simplified, the 

 microbes gradually disappearing in a fairly constant order, until by the 

 fourth day, when the meconium period has ended and the milk stool has 

 become established, the flora of the intestine is constituted by one species 

 only, B. bifidus ; and in the breast-fed child this aspect will be main- 

 tained until it is weaned ; it is usual to find besides this strictly 

 anaerobic bacillus, a limited number of facultative anaerobes (B. coli 

 communis, Enterococcus, and B. lactis aerogenes). In the case of the 

 bottle-fed child, the second phase of the meconium period is longer, and 

 yeasts and varieties of sarcinse are met with that are rare or unknown 

 in the stools of the breast-fed infant ; the third phase also is prolonged, 

 even to the fifteenth day after birth ; the bacteria are very various, 

 varying in the same child from one stool to another. 



The microbes of the meconium period were found to provide mixed 

 proteolytic and peptolytic ferments, which as the result of their action on 

 sugars and albuminoids, give rise to a process identical with putrefaction. 

 The microbes of the meconium are the same in animals as in children, 

 but the microbes of the milk stools are slightly different. 



The microbes forming the intestinal flora of the infant can be 

 isolated from all parts of the digestive canal, but they are not distributed 

 equally in every part. They are less numerous in the stomach, become 

 very rare in the duodenum and in the first portion of the small gut, 

 then they progressively increase, attaining a maximum in the caecum 

 and rectum. Passing from the stomach to the rectum, the microbes. 



* Ann. Inst. Pasteur, six. (1905) p. 109. 



