MICROBES IN THE HUMAN BODY 43 



fermentations * as antagonists of the ' alkaline fermentations, 

 either by adding to the diet carbohydrates such as lactose (milk 

 sugar), or by giving cultures of acid-producing bacteria." 



It had long been the custom to employ as remedies for 

 diarrhoea, intoxications, and intestinal putrefactions, first 

 purgatives, then antiseptics, of which the most popular was 

 /3-naphthol. This treatment has been given up. 



Several days of /?-naphthol treatment fail to diminish the 

 number of bacteria in the alimentary canal (Stern). 



" Since intestinal antisepsis is based on such a weak found- 

 ation," said Quincke in a treatise on intestinal auto-intoxi- 

 cations, "it was natural to search for another method of 

 combating the decomposition caused by bacteria in the 

 intestine, and the idea came to me to try to supplant the 

 injurious bacteria by beneficent ones, just as weeds are 

 suppressed by the growth of useful crops, the starting point 

 being the antagonism of different microbes observed in 

 artificial culture media." Quincke tried the yeast of beer. 

 Later there was employed in infantile diarrhoea the Bacterium 

 lactis aerogenes, the antagonist of B. proteus. 



Intestinal bacteriotherapy has now become part of practical 

 medicine and is applied in two principal forms. The first is 

 to administer those foods which are produced by natural 

 fermentations and which contain great numbers of bacteria; 

 the second is to give along with a suitable diet artificial cultures 

 of bacteria possessing antiputrefactive properties. In both 

 cases it is the antagonistic action of microbes towards the 

 bacteria of decomposition of which one takes advantage. 



Fermented foods, rich in bacteria, were employed long 

 before modern researches on microbial antagonism came into 

 being. 



Humanity has known from time immemorial the whey of 

 milk and the various forms of cheese. It was long before 

 the days of science that there were invented koumiss, kvass, 

 kephir, lebenraib and yoghourt. In the Bible we read that 

 Abraham offered to his guests sour milk as well as sweet 

 Moses says that Jehovah has given his people to eat of the sour 



