INFECTIONS OF THE DIGESTIVE TRACT 287 



of a very large proportion of Gram-positive bacilli cor- 

 responding closely to the morphology of the organism 

 described by Tissier as B. bifidus. It has already been 

 pointed out that the fseces of breast-fed children consist 

 very largely of Gram-positive organisms of the bifidus 

 kind. When children reach the age of three or four 

 years, the bifidus bacilli are usually comparatively few 

 in number and the dominant type is some form of colon 

 bacillus. In children from four to ten years of age the 

 Gram-negative bacilli of the colon type are much in 

 excess normally as compared with the organisms repre- 

 sentative of bifidus. In the cases of chronic intestinal 

 indigestion which are under consideration I have met 

 with a great preponderance of bifidus-like organisms in 

 children as old as seven or eight years. The cultural 

 proof that the organisms to which I refer are in reality 

 the same as those normally present in the faeces in in- 

 fancy is lacking, as I have been unable to adequately 

 study the biochemical characters of these organisms. 

 In sugar-bouillon fermentation tubes, however, the 

 resemblance is a very close one ; that is to say, the growths 

 observed in lactose or dextrose bouillon show many 

 instances of the bifid form of bifidus and also many 

 instances of so-called punctate forms in which Gram- 

 positive portions of the bacillus alternate with segments 

 of the cell body which fail to take the Gram-stain. As- 

 sociated with these bifidus forms in the faeces of the 

 marantic cases one finds moderate numbers of colon 

 bacilli, or colon bacilli may be wholly absent from the 

 fields. In the lactose-bouillon fermentation tubes one 



