INFECTIONS OF THE DIGESTIVE TRACT 55 



the observations of Escherich on a case of atresia ani 

 in which he was able to find in the intestine the obligate 

 milk stool bacteria, B. coli and B. lactis. Moro, fur- 

 thermore, found B. acidophilus in human milk and on 

 the areola in nursing women and drew the inference that 

 this organism reaches the intestine by way of the mouth. 

 The passage of this particular organism which is so 

 resistant in acid media is, of course, not surprising. 

 Other observations were made by Moro upon human 

 milk in the hope of finding there B. bifidus communis and 

 of thus explaining the presence of this microorganism or 

 group of bacteria in the intestine of nursling children; 

 but although he made numerous anaerobic sugar-agar 

 cultures from various samples of human milk (where no 

 precautions had been taken to cleanse the nipple), he 

 was unable to obtain anything except negative results, 

 although relatively large quantities of milk were regu- 

 larly used in making the cultures. Moro was indeed 

 unable to cultivate any strictly anaerobic bacteria from 

 human milk. On the other hand, he regularly found 

 Staphlococcus albus, which is well known to be present 

 on or near the epidermis; sometimes colon bacilli and 

 pseudodiphtheria bacilli ; and in exceptional cases strep- 

 tococci, sarcinse, and Micrococcus candicans; and once 

 a fluorescent bacillus, but never anaerobes. 



A further observation bearing on this question was 

 made by Moro. A newly born child received only ster- 

 ilized milk from the second until the sixth day. The 

 excretion of meconium took place in the usual way and 

 the characteristic bacterial types were found in it. 



