662 BACTERIA OF THE STOMACH AND INTESTINE. 
The constant presence of certain species of bacteria in the intes- 
tine of man and the lower animals has led to the supposition that 
they may serve a useful purpose, or perhaps even have an essential 
physiological réle in connection with intestinal digestion. While 
this question has not been definitely settled, the experiments of 
Vallin, Abelous, and others have thrown some light upon it, and a 
recent experiment by Nuttall and Thierfelder (1895) has considerable 
importance as bearing upon its solution. The experiment consisted 
in removing a foetus from a pregnant guinea-pig by Ceesarean sec- 
tion, placing it under conditions which protected it from the micro- 
organisms present in the atmosphere, and feeding it upon sterilized 
milk. Great technical skill was shown in carrying out this experi- 
ment for a period of eight days, during which time the little animal 
was kept in a sterilized atmosphere and was fed every hour day and 
night. At the end of this time it had consumed over three hundred 
and thirty cubic centimetres of sterilized milk, and was as active and 
healthy as other guinea-pigs of the same age. It was now killed, and 
a careful bacteriological examination showed that the discharges 
from the bowels and the contents of the intestine were entirely sterile. 
ADDITIONAL NOTES UPON BACTERIA OF THE STOMACH AND 
INTESTINE. 
Oppler (1894) has examined material, obtained in the early morning, from 
the stomach of persons suffering from indigestion, and found nearly always 
numerous masses of sarcine. Five different species were obtained from this 
source, which were distinguished by the following characters: No. 1, colo- 
nies sulphur yellow; No. 2, colonies greenish yellow ; No. 3, colonies white ; 
No. 4, colonies white, does not liquefy gelatin ; No. 5, colonies orange yel- 
low. Nos. 1 and 3 were most frequently encountered. 
Kauffmann (1895)in a carefully studied case of chronic dyspepsia obtained 
from the contents of the stomach in the morning before breakfast, and after 
atest meal, the following bacteria: Yellow sarcina, Micrococcusaurantiacus, 
Staphylococcus cereus albus, Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus ramosus, ‘‘ a large 
thick bacillus,” ‘‘a short bacillus resembling Bacillus coli communis.” The 
last-mentioned bacillus was found in large numbers, and Kauffmann suggests 
that it may have been the cause of the fermentation in the digestive tract 
which caused the unpleasant symptoms in the case under investigation. 
Macfayden (1887) and Gillespie (1893) have also obtained a bacillus from 
the stomach which appears to be identical with Bacillus coli communis. In 
the researches of Gillespie it was obtained from a patient with dilatation of 
the stomach who suffered from flatulence, etc. In all, twenty-four different 
microdrganisms were obtained by Gillespie from the contents of the stomach 
of different individuals. This number includes three species of saccha- 
romyces and a mucor. Among the conclusions reached by Gillespie are the 
foilowing : 
‘14, Although bacteria are of no aid to peptic digestion, and a hindrance 
to the pancreatic ferment if in quantity in the duodenum, they still are of 
great use in the smal] intestine, where they control putrefaction. This seems 
paradoxical : microdrganisms obstructing microdrganisms but assisting diges- 
tion. It seems, however, to be true. The organisms which most easily 
pass the searching examination of the stomach are those which give rise by 
