INFECTIONS OF THE DIGESTIVE TRACT 85 



almost certainly B. aerogenes capsulatus on account of 

 their morphology and failure to sporulate. The bacilli 

 of symptomatic anthrax readily sporulate in the incu- 

 bated rabbits. The gas-bacillus (B. aerogenes capsulatus) 

 does not sporulate under these circumstances. 



These differences in the appearance and behavior 

 of the bacteria derived from typical carnivora and 

 herbivora suggest that the habit of living upon a diet 

 consisting exclusively of raw meat entails differences 

 in the types of bacteria that characterize the contents 

 of the large intestine. The occurrence of considerable 

 numbers of spore-bearing organisms in" the carnivora 

 points to the presence of anaerobic putrefactive forms 

 in great numbers. The results of subcutaneous inocula- 

 tions into guinea-pigs bear out this view and indicate 

 that the numbers of organisms capable of producing a 

 hsemorrhagic oedema with tissue necrosis, with or without 

 gas production, are very considerable. Unfortunately 

 the data pertaining to the biological properties of these 

 pathogenic anaerobes are at present insufficient to permit 

 us to classify them or to say more of their nature than 

 that they are organisms representative of a definite 

 group of putrefactive anaerobes which make butyric 

 acid and hydrogen and exert a peptonizing action upon 

 living tissues. Nevertheless the observations here re- 

 corded are of much interest in relation to the bacterial 

 processes and nutrition of herbivorous * as distinguished 

 from carnivorous animals, and are significant furthermore 



1 Many of the herbivora yielded mixed flora incapable of making 

 gas on dextrose bouillon. 



