454 



THE MICRO-ORGANISMS OF THE COLON. [BOOK II. 



intestine. We have now, however, to consider whether micro- 

 organisms exist in the large intestine which possibly subserve a 

 useful function by completing the solution of the undissolved albu- 

 minous and carbohydrate constituents of food which have resisted all 

 previous agencies. 



It was pointed out by Marckwald, in the research to which 

 reference has already been made, that, although no proteolytic enzyme 

 exists in the colon, albuminous matters introduced into it, give rise, 

 under the influence of putrefactive processes, to small quantities of 

 peptones which are doubtless absorbed. 



The charac- 

 teristic micro- 

 organisms of 

 the large 

 intestine. 



The researches of Bienstock 1 , William Booker 2 , 

 Macfadyen, Nencki and Sieber 3 , of Jakowski 4 and of 

 Zumft 5 , have now placed us in possession of much 

 information as to the micro-organisms of the colon and 

 particularly leave no room for doubt that several exist 

 which exert a powerful action on the carbohydrate constituents. 



Bienstock isolated four micro-organisms existing in human faBces, 

 amongst which he found one which he considered to be specially con- 

 cerned in the decomposition of albuminous substances, Bacillus putri- 

 ficus coli. Booker in general confined his observations to the faeces 

 of suckling children and found them to contain nearly pure cultures 

 of Bacterium coli commune. He found this organism to increase 

 when diarrhoea supervened, in proportion to the severity of the 

 disease. He also observed an organism resembling the Bact. lactis 

 aerogenes. 



Macfadyen, Nencki and Sieber isolated three organisms from the 

 contents of the colon, viz. (1) the Streptococcus liquefaciens ilei, closely 

 allied to the Streptococcus coli gracilis of other authors: (2) the 

 Bacterium Bischleri, doubtless one of the forms of the Bacterium coli 

 commune : (3) Bacterium lactis aerogenes. All ' bouillon ' and gelatin 

 cultures made with the contents of the large intestine possessed a 

 repulsive odour of putrefaction and the majority of the colonies ob- 

 tained with plate cultures consisted of a non-fluorescing putrefactive 

 bacillus. Jakowski, in a recent research, conducted in Nencki's 

 laboratory at St Petersburgh, isolated the following organisms from 

 the contents of the colon: Bacterium liquefaciens coli: Streptococ- 

 cus coli gracilis : Bacillus putrificus coli (Bienstock). 



Amongst the organisms just mentioned, the Bacterium coli com- 

 mune has an intense action on sugar. It gives rise, according to the 



1 Bienstock, Zeitschrift f. klin. Med., Bd. vni. (quoted by Macfadyen, Nencki and 

 Sieber, op. cit., p. 336). 



2 William Booker (quoted by Macfadyen, Nencki and Sieber). 



3 Macfadyen, Nencki and Sieber, op. cit., p. 337. 



4 Jakowski, ' Contributions a 1 'etude des processus chimiques dans les intestins de 

 1'homme' (Travail du laborat. de M. Nencki), Archives des Sciences Biologiques, St 

 Petersbourg. Tome i. (1892), p. 539. 



5 Zumft, see foot-note 3, p. 455. 



