INFECTIONS OF THE DIGESTIVE TRACT 193 



to show that two distinct bacteria are included under 

 the name of B. putrificus. 1 One of these, the true B. 

 putrificus, attacks native proteids such as serum albumin ; 

 the other, though morphologically indistinguishable from 

 B. putrificus fails to attack native proteids but decom- 

 poses sugars. Bienstock calls this organism B. para- 

 putrificus. He states that he has found it not infre- 

 quently in the normal human intestine and believes it is 

 paraputrificus and not putrificus that has been found in 

 the contents of the lower bowel. As paraputrificus makes 

 acid from sugars and does not cleave proteids, Bienstock 

 inclines to the belief that the organism is antagonistic 

 to the true putrefactive microorganisms of the intestine 

 and thus supports the colon bacilli in this function. But 

 it is not clear that acid-forming bacteria necessarily act 

 as a check to the development of putrefactive bacteria 

 except under special conditions, and it appears ques- 

 tionable whether B. paraputrificus is really a factor in 

 checking the multiplication of harmful anaerobes. 



The role of the putrefactive type of B. putrificus in 

 pathological processes has not yet been determined. 

 That it plays a part in certain putrefactive disorders 

 appears to me probable on the following grounds. An 

 organism corresponding to the cultural and morphological 

 characters of B. putrificus appears in great abundance 

 in week-old cultures of the mixed flora from some per- 

 sons suffering from subacute or chronic intestinal symp- 

 toms at present not satisfactorily definable. As these 

 organisms regularly appear after inoculation with the 



1 "Bacillus Putrificus," Ann. de VInst, Pasteur, xx, p. 407, 1906. 

 o 



