BACTERIA OF THE STOMACH AND INTESTINE. 659° 
in a living condition, but there is good reason to believe that the 
spirillum of cholera or the bacillus of anthrax would not. On the 
other hand, the tubercle bacillus and the spores of other bacilli can, 
no doubt, pass through the stomach to the intestine without losing 
their vitality. 
Of nineteen species isolated by Vignal in his cultures from the 
healthy human mouth, the greater number resisted the action of the 
gastric juice for more than an hour, and six species which did not 
form spores were found to retain their vitality in gastric juice for 
more than twenty-four hours. 
In making a bacteriological analysis of the contents of the healthy 
stomach the more resistant microérganisms and those which form 
spores will naturally be found in greater or less numbers, inasmuch 
as some of them are likely to be present in food and water ingested. 
Van Puteren (1888) obtained a variety of microérganisms in very 
considerable numbers from the stomachs of infants fed upon un- 
sterilized cow’s milk, but in healthy nursing infants the number was 
much smaller, especially when the mouth was washed out with dis- 
tilled water immediately before and after nursing. In 18 per cent 
of the cases no microédrganisms were found under these circum- 
stances, and in 41 per cent the number fell below one thousand per 
cubic centimetre. Among the nursing infants examined (eighty- 
five) the following species were most numerous: Monilia candida, 
Bacillus lactis aérogenes, a non-liquefying coccus, Staphylococcus 
pyogenes aureus, Bacillus subtilis. In infants fed upon cow’s milk 
(eleven) Bacillus lactis aérogenes was present in 45.4 per cent of 
the cases, and Staphylococcus pyogenes aureus in 27.2 per cent, non- 
liquefying cocci in 54.4 per cent, liquefying cocci in 72.7 per cent, 
Bacillus subtilis in 36.3 per cent, and Bacillus butyricus (Hueppe) 
in all of the cases; next to these Bacillus flavescens liquefaciens 
was the most abundant. The author named reaches the conclusion 
that no species is constant and that the presence of those found de- 
pends upon accidental circumstances. 
Abelous (1889) found in his own stomach, washed out while fast- 
ing, a considerable number of species of bacteria, viz.: Sarcina 
ventriculi, Bacillus pyocyaneus, Bacillus lactis aérogenes, Bacillus 
subtilis, Bacillus mycoides, Bacillus amylobacter, Vibrio rugula, 
and eight other undescribed bacilli and one coccus. All of these 
microérganisms were able to resist the action of hydrochloric acid 
in the proportion of 1.7 grammes in 1,000 grammes of water. 
Several were found to be facultative anaérobics. 
The action of the bacteria isolated by him was tested by Abelous 
upon various alimentary substances. The time required to effect 
changes, such as the digestion of fibrin, the changing of starch 
