436 P. G. HEINEMANN AND E. E. ECKER 



benign ones by the presence of these bacilli. This conclusion 

 was reached because in malignant cases the hydrochloric acid 

 disappears, while lactic acid is frequently present. 



Bacilli of the B. bulgaricus group are widely distributed in 

 nature as shown by several authors. Heinemann and Hefferan 

 have found them in the feces of man, horses and cows, in soil, 

 in fodder for cattle (bran, silage, dry brewer's grains), in corn- 

 meal, sauerkraut, olive juice, dill pickles, pepper mango, mar- 

 ket milk and in human saUva. Hastings and Hammer (1909) 

 reported the presence of these bacilU in milk, butter and cheese 

 and recently Hunter and Bushnell (1916) ascribed the fermenta- 

 tion of silage to the activity of the B. bulgaricus group. That 

 they are active in final stages of the ripening of Emmenthaler 

 cheese has been shown by Eldredge and Rogers (1914) and they 

 have been reported by Evans, Hastings and Hart (1914) in 

 Cheddar cheese. Dotterrer and Breed (1915) during a tour of 

 inspection of cheese factories in New York State have found that 

 the pasteurized whey undergoes a practically pure lactic acid 

 fermentation due to B. bulgaricus and that in unpasteurized 

 whey the organisms are present in enormous numbers. The 

 authors state also that the pasteurization temperature applied 

 to these cases (66°-71°C.) was not sufficient to destroy the or- 

 ganism, although it destroyed most other bacteria present. 



Since lacto-bacilU have been found in saliva and feces under 

 normal conditions, it would be surprising if they did not exist 

 normally in the stomach. Their presence in the digestive tract 

 is the natural result of their frequency in foods, especially milk 

 and milk products. Furthermore, this group of bacilli is able 

 to resist a relatively high degree of acidity and survive where 

 other bacteria are largely destroyed. Consequently the hydro- 

 chloric acid of the gastric fluid is not destructive to them, although 

 it undoubtedly restrains their growth. 



That lacto-bacilU actually exist in normal gastric juice has 

 been shown by Strauss and Heinemann and Hefferan as stated 

 before. If the hydrochloric acid restrains multipUcation, it 

 seems logical to assume that reduction in the amount of hy- 

 drochloric acid or its absence will permit growth and this assump- 



