INFECTIONS OF THE DIGESTIVE TRACT 157 



used for inoculation were obtained in one instance from 

 the cystitic urine of the patient. The study of mucous 

 colitis from this standpoint appears promising. It is 

 very desirable that the biochemical characters of the 

 bacilli concerned in this disease should be well established. 

 The possibility has not been excluded, I think, that in 

 the cases mentioned by Dr. Wright the organisms con- 

 cerned were not typical colon bacilli, but closely related 

 pathological varieties. 



Typhoid Bacilli. It has just been pointed out that 

 organisms of the strict colon bacillus group are not at 

 present known to be the cause of severe acute intestinal 

 diseases and that their chief role in chronic disorders 

 of the intestine depends on their participating in putre- 

 factive decompositions. We may briefly consider a 

 microorganism which, while closely affiliated to the colon 

 bacillus, is morphologically and in cultural characters 

 different from it in important biochemical properties 

 and is immeasurably more pathogenic for the human race. 

 This is the bacillus of typhoid fever discovered by Eberth 

 and Gaffky independently in 1884. This organism as 

 compared with the colon bacillus is far less hardy in its 

 growth on ordinary culture media and requires much 

 more special conditions in order to thrive conditions 

 which it often finds in the human body. We do not know 

 in what relation it stands to the colon bacillus in the long 

 process of natural evolution. The claim that colon 

 bacilli can be experimentally transformed into typhoid 

 bacilli has never been made good, and still we cannot 

 deny that what bacteriologists cannot do in the laboratory 



