294 APPLIED BACTERIOLOGY 



human intestine. Out of twenty cases examined of diarrhoea 

 of different character, fourteen contained anaerobic bacilli, 

 and twelve of these were the same morphologically and 

 culturally, or differing only slightly with the B. enteritidis 

 sporogenes of Klein. 



Gartner has obtained (1888) an organism (see p. 440) 

 from the tissues of a cow which was killed in consequence 

 of an attack characterised by severe diarrhoea, and also 

 from the spleen of a man who died twelve hours after 

 eating the flesh of this animal. 



Infantile Diarrheea. — Young children are particularly 

 liable to attacks of diarrheea, possibly due to the sus- 

 ceptible organism of the child predisposing to such in- 

 testinal disorders, which is in part largely due to the 

 easily decomposible nature of their food, consisting largely 

 of niilk. 



Escherich found that in the milk faeces two organisms 

 predominated, viz., the B. coli communis and the B. lactis 

 aerogenes. The investigations of Macfadyen, Nencki, and 

 Sieber show that the bacteria of the small intestine 

 primarily decompose carbo-hydrates, with the result that 

 the contents of the small intestine have an acid reaction. 

 This acidity will be a main factor in preventing the 

 development of a putrefactive decomposition under normal 

 conditions. 



Escherich did not find in cases of infantile diarrhoea any 

 organisms that might be called specific. He supposes that 

 in the upper intestine a main factor in the causation of 

 diarrhoea is abnormal acid formation by bacteria, and that 

 in the lower intestine the decomposition is of proteid 

 matter. 



The action of the bacteria does not take place through a 

 direct invasion of the organism, but through the absorption 

 of poisons formed by them. It is probably through their 



