CHAP. II.] BACTERICIDAL ACTION OF GASTRIC JUICK. 171 



(von Eschricht), Bacillus subtilis, B. mycoides, B. amylobacter, 

 Vibrio rugida ; in addition .to these well-known organisms, there 

 occurred also one coccus and eight bacilli. All these organisms, 

 according to Abelous, resist the action of artificial gastric juice, 

 containing 17 per thousand of HC1 1 . 



The action of the gastric juice on pathogenic 

 as-trfc" 1 6 or g an i sms naturally offers the greatest interest, and has 

 8 



pathogenic keen tne subject of many investigations. 

 organisms. Amongst the first to deal with the subject in a 



thoroughly satisfactory manner were Falk and Frank. 

 Falk 2 found that the Bacillus anthracis (the pathogenic organism 

 which occasions the so-called ' splenic fever ' of cattle, ' Milzbrand ' 

 or ' Charbon ') is not acted upon by the saliva, the pancreatic juice or 

 the bile, but that it is readily destroyed by the action of the gastric 

 juice, although the spores which the bacillus may contain usually 

 escape destruction. Falk found that the Tubercle bacillus was not 

 affected by any of the digestive juices, including the gastric juice, 

 though it readily succumbs to the putrefactive process. 



Frank's researches 3 fully corroborated the observations of Falk, 

 both in the case of the Tubercle bacillus and in that of the B. 

 anthracis, and, like Falk, Frank came to the conclusion that the 

 action of the digestive juices opposed no very general and effectual 

 resistance to the inroads of infecting pathogenic organisms. 



Since the date of these researches many observers have ex- 

 perimented in the same direction, and with the more interesting of 

 their results we shall now deal. 



The experiments and observations of Nicati and Rietsch and of 

 Koch himself have established that the Comma bacillus of Koch, 

 which has now been proved, beyond the possibility of doubt, to be the 

 pathogenic organism of Asiatic cholera, is readily destroyed by the 

 action of the gastric juice, and indeed by dilute solutions of hydro- 

 chloric acid. We are thus enabled to explain satisfactorily the 

 difficulty which has been experienced in communicating cholera to 

 animals (and even to man) by the administration of pure cultures of 

 the Comma bacillus. The experiments of Nicati and Rietsch 4 have 

 however shewn that if the stomach be washed out with alkaline 

 solutions, so as to abolish the acid reaction imparted to it by the 

 gastric juice, the introduction of cultures of the Comma bacillus is 

 in some cases followed by the invasion of symptoms akin to those of 



1 The reader may wish to refer to a paper by W. de Bary entitled ' Beitrage zur 

 Kenntniss der niederen Organismen im Mageninhalte.' Archiv f. exp. Pathol. und 

 Pharmakologie, Vol. xx (1885), p. 243. 



2 Falk ' U eber das Verhalten von Infectionsstoffen im Verdauungscanale,' Virchow's 

 Archiv, Vol. xcm (1883), p. 117. 



3 Edmund Frank ' Ueber das Verhalten von Infectionsstoffen gegeniiber den 

 Verdauungssaften,' Deutsche Med. Wochenschrift, 1884, No. 20. 



4 W. Nicati and N. Rietsch, Revue Sclent. 1884, p. 658 ; Comptes Rendus, Vol. xcix. 

 p. 921. 



