308 BACTERIA IN THE SPUTA 



Bechamp compared the transformation of saccharine in the pre- 

 sence of its i7iicrozymas with that of the faecula through diastasis.* 

 Warlcmann held the same action even for starch, and he conceived 

 that from the bacteria was secreted a true diastatic yeast, destined 

 to transform starch into glucose, although unapt to peptonise the 

 albumenoids.f But, later on, others recognised in buccal bacteria 

 even such a peptonising action, and Miller holds it to be equal to 

 that of the pepsine itself, even without the co-operation of acids.;}: 



A considerable number of the same germs and elements of the 

 mouth, as well of the nose, is cast into the air-passages at every 

 breath, as the daily observation of the normal sputa shows (see 

 preceding Memoir). Those germs and elements thrive and multi- 

 ply in the mucus of the bronchi, trachea, and larynx, as the 

 fructification in the pulmonitic sputum, just described, shows ; it 

 is evidently a soil fit for the vegetation of Leptothrix. 



Shingleton-Smith,§ in the quoted paper on Contagiwn Vivuffi, 

 considers, first, the property that the moistened mucous membrane 

 has of holding bacteria. It does not let them out with the breath, 

 but through the ciliary action of the epithelia, which throws them 

 out with the mucus. This happens with pathogenic bacteria, but, 

 a fortiori, it must be so with normal bacteria. The same author 

 quotes the experiments of Tyndal, who found the residual air from 

 the lungs absolutely free from particles which would reflect the 

 electric beam. He quotes as well the observations of Lister and 

 others, who maintained that there were no bacteria in the pus of 

 Empyena with Pneumothorax, the opening on the surface of 

 the lung being very small. This must indicate that the microbes 



* Bechamp, Les Microzyuias et les Zymases, Arch, de Physiol., 1883. 

 The same, La Salive, la Slalozy/nase, et les Organismes Buccatix, etc. {vide 

 Bibliography), 1883. 



tWarkmann, Untersuch. uber das diastatische Ferment der Bacterien 

 ( Zeitschrift fnr Phys. Che?nie, Bd. vi., 1883J. 



X See Bufalini, Of the Peptonising Action of Bacteria ( Giornale internaz. 

 delle Sc. Mediche, 1883). Miller, Ueher Gahrtingsvorgange im Verdauung- 

 stracttis iind die dabei betheiligten Spaltpilze {Dezit. ?n. IVoch., 1885, No, 49). 

 The same, Die A fihroorganismen der Mundhohle {see B\h\iogYa.phy), pp. 77 — 90, 

 where he specially deals with the fermentative action of buccal microbes upon 

 hydro-carbons, albumenoids, and fats. 



%fournal of Microscopy and Natural Science, 1890, p. 34. 



