340 INFECTIONS OF THE DIGESTIVE TRACT 



that can be suggested by competent medical men, the 

 question of surgical interference may arise. The past 

 ten years have recorded a very large number of surgical 

 triumphs in connection with the human digestive tract. 

 Unfortunately in a majority of the instances of disease 

 successfully relieved by surgical methods little or nothing 

 is known of the bacterial conditions in the digestive 

 tract and what modifications they may have undergone 

 as a result of treatment. There can be no doubt, how- 

 ever, that in some of the cases that have been success- 

 fully subjected to operation a part at least of the im- 

 provement has come about through the mitigation of 

 putrefactive processes in the large intestine. It is, I think, 

 extremely desirable that much closer attention should 

 be given to the study of cases from the bacterial stand- 

 point than has ever been the case, for the knowledge 

 which must surely be accumulated in this way must 

 prove extremely helpful in deciding what shall be done 

 with certain patients suffering from chronic anaerobic 

 infections of a severe type. An operation which has been 

 very often practiced in one or another form is that of 

 gastro-enterostomy. In cases of dilatation of the stomach 

 which have resisted ordinary forms of treatment, ad- 

 mirable results have many times been obtained in the 

 relief of a great variety of digestive disturbances. It 

 seems highly probable that the relief afforded in these 

 cases has been due in most instances in part at least to the 

 greatly improved conditions of bacterial activity which 

 followed the removal of a source of stagnation and 

 putrefaction in the upper part of the digestive tract. 



