154 INFECTIONS OF THE DIGESTIVE TRACT 



bacteria. Attention has lately been called by Dr. 

 Turck * of Chicago to the fact that he has experimentally 

 induced in dogs the formation of ulcers of the stomach 

 in many respects comparable to those occurring in man. 

 The fact is in itself one of considerable interest to pathol- 

 ogists, although its bearing on the etiology of human 

 gastric ulcers is obscure. The reported experimental re- 

 sults were obtained by feeding dogs, during considerable 

 periods, bouillon cultures of bacilli derived from patients 

 with gastric ulcer. The bacilli are stated to have been 

 colon bacilli, but it is regretable that the cultural and 

 biochemical characters of the bacteria are not mentioned. 

 Moreover, while it seems likely that human colon bacilli 

 may in disease migrate to the gastric region and multi- 

 ply freely there, this is not now known to be the case in 

 ulcer. 2 



In considering the part played by the colon bacilli in 

 chronic disorders one fact stands out distinctly and gives 

 us a clew to the nature of the activity of these bacilli. 

 Human colon bacilli have practically no power to dis- 

 solve and peptonize native proteids, such as casein or 

 egg albumen. I conclude from experiments which I 



J " Ulcer of the Stomach; Pathogenesis, Pathology," Journ. 

 Amer, Med. Assoc., xlvi, p. 1753, 1906. 



2 The association of colon-bacillus infection of the stomach with 

 gastric ulcer would not of course prove an etiological relation, as 

 the infection might be a secondary phenomenon. Moreover, it 

 must be remembered that the production of ulcers in dogs by means 

 of human colon bacilli involves the action of foreign organisms. 

 The presence of the obligate and homologous colon bacilli of man 

 in the human stomach is thus not strictly comparable with the 

 conditions induced in Turck's experiments. 



