Scurvy of Guinea Pigs and of Infants. 75 



order to determine this point a study of the intestinal flora was 

 made in guinea pigs on a normal diet, on a diet which produced 

 scurvy, and again on a diet which cured this disorder. For this 

 purpose cultures and grain stained films were made from the feces, 

 as well as from the different levels of the small and large intestine 

 immediately after chloroforming the animals. This study on 

 guinea pigs is portrayed in Table I. 



It will be seen that proteolytic bacteria other than subtloid types 

 were not found in the intestinal tract; that the bacteria which were 

 cultivated were merely those found in the outer world, for example, 

 on dried foodstuffs. Similar organisms, indeed, were cultivated 

 from the hay and oats which were fed these animals. Attention 

 may be called to the fact that with none of the diets did B. coli 

 develop, and that it was isolated from only one animal. The 

 number of viable bacteria will also be noted as remarkably few, 

 generally less than 1,000 per milligram of material. Among these 

 there were hardly any that were actively proteolytic. Further- 

 more, a point of prime importance, there was no change in the 

 flora on adding orange juice to the diet, although the scorbutic 

 symptoms disappeared. It is our opinion, therefore, that most of 

 the bacteria entering the intestinal tract are destroyed, and that 

 the pabulum is not such as to encourage the growth of native 

 intestinal bacteria. 



A similar study was carried out on the stools of three infants 

 suffering from scurvy. Table II gives a summary of these results. 

 It will be seen that the infants were all on a high carbohydrate 

 diet, and that in two instances we were able to compare the flora, 

 not only during the active scorbutic process, but after orange juice 

 had been given for a week or more. This investigation shows 

 that the bacteria were merely such as we should expect with a diet 

 rich in carbohydrates. Putrefactive organisms were present only 

 in small numbers; in the case where they were found to be most 

 numerous (5) they had disappeared upon the subsequent exami- 

 nation, although the scurvy had become more marked. 



We therefore conclude from this study that the scurvy, both 

 of guinea pigs and of infants, is not associated with an overgrowth 

 of putrefactive bacteria in the intestinal tract. The amount of 

 putrefaction present, however, can be determined only by a 

 chemical study. 



