CHARACTERS OF THE BACTERIAL FLORA OF 

 CARNIVOROUS AND OF HERBIVOROUS ANI- 

 MALS 



IN the course of the study of anaerobes of the human 

 intestine it appeared desirable to learn something about 

 the characters of the bacterial flora inhabiting the large 

 intestine of various domestic and wild animals. It 

 was noticed that in the dog, which is frequently exclu- 

 sively carnivorous, the intestinal contents often showed 

 the presence of large numbers of spores, spore-bearing 

 bacilli, and vegetative forms of anaerobes. The numbers 

 present in the faeces were noted to be especially large in 

 some animals which had been exclusively fed on meat. 

 A study of a grown cat fed upon raw meat showed the 

 presence of Gram-positive vegetative anaerobes from 

 one end of the digestive tract to the other. Flora derived 

 from the stomach, small intestine, and large intestine 

 were inoculated and grown in bouillon flasks and showed 

 an abundant production of methyl mercaptan as well 

 as of hydrogen sulphide. The numbers of colon bacilli 

 present in this case were relatively small as compared 

 with the anaerobes. The study of the colonies obtained 

 on anaerobic plates showed that a large portion of the 

 organisms present in the intestinal tract were B. aero- 

 genes capsulatus. Intravenous infusion of these organisms 



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