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 the 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. 



BACTERIA IN THE INDUSTRIES 



Bacteria and Tobacco. In the manufacture of tobacco, the har- 

 vested leaves are first dried and then heaped up in large masses in which 

 the tobacco undergoes fermentation. During this fermentation, which 

 goes on at temperatures varying from 50 C. to 60 C., carbohydrates 

 are split up and much nicotin is destroyed. 5 The end products consist 

 largely of CO 2 and various organic acids, butyric, formic, succinic, etc. 

 During the fermentation, bacteria of many varieties are found in the 

 heaps of tobacco leaves and many attempts have been made to deter- 

 mine flavors artificially by inoculating tobacco leaves of a poorer quality 

 with cultures obtained from the finer Havana grades. Suchsland 6 and 

 others, who have attempted this, claim to have obtained marked im- 

 provements in domestic products by this method. The bacteria found 

 in tobacco fermentation belong to many varieties. Some of these are 

 closely related to the proteus and subtilis groups. Others are distinctly 

 thermophilic, an attribute required by the high temperatures attained 

 in the fermenting tobacco leaves. It is probable that the tobacco 



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. 

 * North, Med. Record, March, 1909. 



5 Behrens, quoted from Fliigge, "Die Mikroorganismen," Bd. 1, Leipzig, 1896. 



6 Suchsland, Ber. der Deut. botan. Ges., ix. 



