34 Manual of Veterinary Microbiology. 



pletely peptonized by several of them. Cane sugar 

 was inverted by eight different species. Eleven species 

 more or less completely converted starch into sugar. 

 The conjoined action of these different micro-organ- 

 isms upon a complex food must be considerable. 



Putrefaction of dead bodies. — The healthy intestinal 

 mucosa forms an effective barrier to the invasion of 

 germs pullulating within the intestine; after death the 

 cells having lost their power of resistance are rapidly 

 dissolved by the diastases which these microbes secrete, 

 and the latter penetrate within the tissues. They are 

 first found in the peritoneum and on the surface of the 

 abdominal viscera; they multiply in the blood of the 

 mesenteric veins and extend along the portal vein, 

 from which they progress toward the heart ; thus, in 

 various ways, they more or less rapidly invade the 

 whole economy. 



These anaerobic germs find in the organism deprived 

 of oxygenated blood the most favorable conditions for 

 their multiplication. Hence putrefaction is the more 

 rapid in proportion as the blood is poorer in oxygen 

 at the time of death, for example, in animals dead 

 from charbon. In some cases the lack of oxygen is 

 seconded by the absence of coagulation of the blood 

 and of cadaveric rigidity, conditions which, by main- 

 taining the fluidity of the medium, render microbic 

 invasion more easy. 



Putrefaction of cadavers is, therefore, primarily the 

 effect of anaerobic germs coming from the intestinal 

 surface; the anaerobes of other surfaces are in fact 

 paralyzed in most cases by contact with the oxygen 

 of the atmosphere. Putrefaction differs somewhat ac- 

 cording to the surroundings in which it occurs. 



