URINARY AND GENITAL ORGANS 697 



most in evidence. 1 Kendall 2 has described the presence of a 

 bacillus (B. infantilis) in large numbers in a condition of infan- 

 tilism, associated, according to Herter, with chronic intestinal 

 infection. The organism is a Gram-positive, motile, sporing 

 bacillus belonging to the subtilis group. It is aerobic and faculta- 

 tively anaerobic, grows readily on the ordinary culture media, 

 and ferments dextrose and saccharose with the production of 

 acid only, but lactose is hardly attacked. In a dog and a monkey 

 diarrhoea was produced by feeding with it. 



Urinary and genital organs. The meatus urinarius and distal 

 portion of the urethra contain a few organisms, which increase in 

 number in inflammatory conditions, and Gram -negative cocci 

 may be found (see p. 302). A few spirochaetes may also be present 

 in the normal urethra. The deeper portion of the urethra, how- 

 ever, is free from organisms, and the bladder is sterile. The 

 genital tract in the iemale up to the middle zone of the cervix 

 contains organisms, but the uterus and Fallopian tubes are 

 normally sterile. The B. vagince of Doderleiu, a large Gram- 

 positive bacillus capable of growing in an acid medium, is 

 frequently present in considerable numbers in the vagina. 



1 See Herter, Bacterial Infections of the Digestive Tract, 1907. 



2 Journ. Biolog. Chemistry, vol. v, p. 419. 



