1044 BACTERIA IN AIR, SOIL, WATER, AND MILK 



tion 53 is due to contamination with other chromogenic or putrefactive 

 bacteria. 



In its relationship to the spread of infectious disease, cheese is 

 relatively unimportant except in regard to tuberculosis. Typhoid 

 and other non-spore forming pathogenic germs can not survive the 

 conditions existing during cheese-ripening for any length of time. 

 Tubercle bacilli, both of the human and bovine types, have been 

 found in cheese by Harrison 54 and others, and Galtier has shown 

 experimentally that tubercle bacilli may remain alive and virulent 

 in both salted and unsalted cheese for as long as ten days. 



THE LACTIC-ACID BACILLI AND METCHNIKOFF'S* 

 BACTERIOTHERAPY 



A problem which has occupied clinical investigation for many 

 years is that of gastrointestinal autointoxication. There are a 

 number of conditions occurring in man, in which symptoms pro- 

 foundly affecting the nervous system, the circulation, and, in a 

 variety of ways, the entire body, can be clinically traced to the 

 intestines, and can, in many cases, be relieved by thorough purgation 

 and careful diet. In some of these conditions, specific microorgan- 

 isms can be held accountable for the diseases (B. enteritidis, B. 

 botulinus, etc.). In other cases, however, etiological investigations 

 have met with but partial success because of the large variety of 

 microorganisms present in the intestinal tract and because of the 

 complicated symbiotic conditions thereby produced. Intestinal 

 putrefaction, recognized as the cardinal feature of such maladies, 

 has been attributed to Bacillus proteus vulgaris, 55 to Bacillus 

 aerogenes capsulatus, to Bacillus putrificus, 56 and to a number of 

 other bacteria, but definite and satisfactory proof as to the 

 etiological importance of any of these germs has not yet been 

 advanced. The fact remains, however, that, whatever may be the 



* See also B. Acidophilus, etc., in another section of this book. 

 M Beijerinck, Koch's Jahresber, etc., 82, 189. 



"Harrison and Galtier, quoted from Mohler, U. S. Pub. H. and Mar. Hosp. 

 Serv., Hygiene Lab. Bull. 41, 1908. 

 65 Lesage, Eev. de med., 1887. 

 64 Tissier, Ann. de 1 'inst. Pasteur, 1-905. 



