298 INFECTIONS OF THE DIGESTIVE TRACT 



be ascribed to the presence of this organism. I think 

 it probable that B. aerogenes capsulatus is sometimes 

 capable of making methyl mercaptan, but apparently 

 it usually does not make this gas as abundantly as 

 does B. putrificus, and there are strains which do not 

 form it under the conditions in which the organism has 

 been grown on blood bouillon. 



Chronic excessive saccharo-butyric intestinal putre- 

 faction is a widespread condition among adults. In 

 children it is, I believe, a relatively uncommon occur- 

 rence. Although there is evidence that in children 

 some acute disturbances of short duration are dependent 

 upon this process, as people grow older they are in 

 general more subject to the occurrence of this type of 

 putrefactive disorder. The grade in which the dis- 

 turbance is present varies within wide limits. B. 

 aerogenes capsulatus is present in the intestine of nearly 

 all adults, and there are probably few persons who from 

 time to time do not suffer slight temporary derangements 

 of intestinal digestion connected with the temporarily 

 excessive multiplication of these anaerobes. There are 

 probably persons who during an entire lifetime have 

 digestive disturbances, usually slight but sometimes 

 more marked, which are dependent on this form of 

 putrefaction. Under such circumstances the duration 

 of life may not be appreciably shortened. Persons who 

 have long had disturbances of this sort may attain to 

 seventy or seventy-five years of age. They, however, 

 suffer in various ways a diminution in efficiency and are 

 subject to various obvious disturbances. It sometimes 



