64 INFECTIONS OF THE DIGESTIVE TRACT 



Products of Decomposition in the Intestinal Tract of 

 Bottle-fed Children. It has already been pointed out 

 that the products of intestinal decomposition in normal 

 nurslings are remarkably small in amount when we 

 consider the large numbers of bacteria that inhabit the 

 lower part of the intestinal tract. Almost the same thing 

 holds true of the intestinal tract of bottle-fed children. 

 If we make extracts of the contents of any portion of the 

 large intestine from a normal, bottle-fed child, we find 

 by the most delicate methods merely a trace of indol, 

 or even no trace at all. Traces of skatol are much less 

 frequent than traces of indol. Corresponding to the 

 fact that indol is in health always slight in amount and 

 frequently absent, is the observation that aqueous 

 extracts from any part of the contents of the krge in^ 

 testine give no reaction with an acid solution of dimeth- 

 ylamidobenzaldehyde. It will be shown when dealing 



fed children, but their number is usually small and their presence 

 inconstant. The bacillus of malignant O3dema has also been found 

 in the stools of children fed on cow's milk, but it is likewise incon- 

 stant, and I believe ordinarily of little physiological importance. 

 The anaerobes just mentioned the motile butyric acid bacillus, 

 B. aerogenes capsulatus , B. putrificus, and the bacillus of malignant 

 03dema, are all spore-producers, although they do not produce 

 their spores with equal readiness. B. aerogenes capsulatus indeed 

 sporulates only under special conditions and probably seldom in 

 the intestinal tract of a normal bottle-fed child. The number of 

 spores present in the faeces of bottle-fed children who may be re- 

 garded as normal is ordinarily very small as compared with the 

 numbers found in some conditions of disease. The character of 

 the spores formed is at present uncertain; that is to say, it is 

 difficult to decide in the case of free spores to what organisms they 

 belong. Where sporulating bacilli are present, they are probably 

 not members of the group of B. aerogenes capsulatus. 



