

718 BACTERIA IN AIR, SOIL, WATER, AND MILK 



the antiputrefactive activity of the bacillus, the treatment of Metch- 

 nikoff has found many adherents, upon the basis of purely clinical ex- 

 periment. It is not possible to review completely the already extensive 

 literature. Among the more valuable contributions may be mentioned 

 the articles by Grekoff, 1 by Wegele, 2 and by Klotz. 3 In Metchnikoff's 

 experiments and in the work of his immediate successors, the bacillus 

 was used either in milk culture or in broth in which it was induced to 

 grow in symbiosis with other microorganisms. 



Recently, North 4 has suggested^he use of Bacillus bulgaricus in 

 parts of the body other than the digestive tract. His work was made 

 feasible by the discovery that the bacillus could be cultivated in dex- 

 trose-pepton broth to which calcium carbonate has been added, after 

 the manner recommended by Hiss. With such cultures, applied in the 

 form of a spray, inflammations of the ear, nose, throat, genitourinary 

 tract, etc., have been treated, many of them with success. 



BACTERIOLOGICAL EXAMINATION OF OYSTERS 



On account of the danger of the transmission of typhoid fever by 

 oysters which have been bred or stored in contaminated water, stand- 

 ard methods 5 have been devised for the estimation of the bacterial con- 

 tent of oysters. These are similar in principle and method to those 

 used for the examination of water, and a most important index of 

 sewage contamination and consequent danger of typhoid infection is 

 *the number of colon bacilli present in the shell fish. The shell liquor 

 is used for examination, and in examining oysters in the shell the fol- 

 lowing procedure is followed: Five oysters having deep bowls and 

 closed shells are selected. Lips of the shell are sterilized in the flame 

 or by burning with alcohol. The liquor is obtained by opening the 

 shell with a sterilized knife, or better, by drilling a hole through the 

 flame surface with a sterilized gimlet. For determining the total num- 

 ber of bacteria the shell liquor is withdrawn with a sterilized pipette, 

 diluted with 1 per cent salt solution, and placed in agar, as described 

 on page 693. More important, however, is the presumptive colony 

 test, which is carried out by inoculating three lactose bile tubes with 



1 Grekoff, "Observations cliniques sur 1'effet du lact. agri.," etc., St. Petersburg, 

 1907. 



2 Wegele, Deut. med. Woch., xxxiv, 1908. 



3 Klotz, Zentralbl. f. innere Med., 1908. 



4 North, Med. Record, March, 1909. 



* Amer. Jour. Pub. Health, 1913, ii, 34. 



