8 4 



Scientific Proceedings (36). 



mon bile duct was ligated or also incised. In rabbits this is very 

 easy to carry out, as the pancreatic duct enters the intestine 

 separately and many inches below the bile duct. All five experi- 

 ments gave positive results. The smallest amount injected was 

 one loop of culture, which was recovered after the animal had 

 lived for one hour. 



In order to prevent the damming back of the bile, consequent 

 to ligation of the common duct, two experiments, in which the 

 duct was not obstructed, were undertaken. In these the duodenum 

 was ligated and divided in its upper part, so that the bile flowed 

 freely into its upper segment and no stagnation ensued. In addi- 

 tion the pancreatic duct was ligated. In one of these experiments 

 in which one loop of culture was inoculated, Bacillus prodigiosus 

 was recovered from the lower duodenum and the ileum. 



Finally a dog was experimented upon. A duodenal fistula 

 was made, the upper segment of gut including the openings of the 

 pancreatic and the bile ducts. After the upper end of the duo- 

 denum was closed off, four loops of culture suspended in 4 c.c. of 

 salt solution were injected into the jugular vein, the animal having 

 been starved previously for twenty-four hours. Two hours later 

 Bacillus prodigiosus was recovered from the lower segment of the 

 small intestine, the gall bladder, and the urine, but not from the 

 cecum or large intestine. 



In some of this series of experiments the small intestine was 

 ligated so as to divide it into sections, to see whether we could 

 determine whether there was any difference as regards the perme- 

 ability of the various segments of the gut. We found, however, 

 that all parts of the small intestine acted alike in this respect. 



It is very difficult to estimate even approximately the number 

 of bacteria that may traverse the intestinal wall in this way. In 

 general it may be said that in rabbits using an inoculation of one 

 to three loops of culture material, not a very large number of 

 organisms seem to be excreted by this route, as they could not be 

 cultivated regularly from each tube, even though one half to one 

 cubic centimeter of the intestinal contents was used for culture 

 purpose. In the small intestine and especially in the duodenum 

 the living bacteria are normally so few that large amounts of the 

 fecal contents can be used for culture without danger of losing 



