9 2 



Scientific Proceedings (52). 



The study of the fluid included inspection, direct microscopic 

 count of the bacterial cells, plating of measured amounts on 

 litmus lactose agar and ascitic-fluid agar, separation cultures of 

 measured quantities in tall tubes of ascitic-fluid agar and fer- 

 mentation-tube cultures of measured quantities in dextrose broth 

 and lactose broth. In addition, a portion of the fluid was heated 

 to 8o° C. for ten minutes and inoculated in measured quantities 

 into tall tubes of glucose ascitic-fluid agar and into fermentation 

 tubes of glucose broth and lactose broth. 



Thirty-five samples were studied, of which the first nine were 

 unsatisfactory because of defects in technic. The results obtained 

 on the remaining twenty-six serve as a basis for this report. 



The results can be presented here only in summary form. 

 In general, the number of bacterial cells seen microscopically 

 varied from 600,000 to 960,000,000 per c.c. and their number 

 bore no evident relation to the number of colonies obtained in 

 cultures nor to the clinical condition of the patient. On the 

 other hand, the results of the culture work indicate that the normal 

 duodenal fluid is practically free from living bacteria when food 

 is absent, and that the number of cultivable bacteria obtained 

 in a given case is a rough index of the digestive derangement. 

 Gas-forming microbes developed in the fermentation tubes in 

 ten of the twenty-six fluids examined, all from cases with gastro- 

 intestinal disturbance. Bacterial spores capable of resisting a 

 temperature of 8o° C. for twenty minutes were not found in any 

 examination. 



One hundred ten subcultures were isolated and studied. Forty- 

 three of these were Gram-positive, non-liquefying cocci. These 

 were isolated from a majority of the samples and doubtless are 

 the organisms most frequently present in health and in slight dis- 

 turbances. Gram-negative, gas-forming bacilli which liquefy gela- 

 tin were isolated from five of the twenty-six fluids, all derived 

 from cases of severe gastro-intestinal disorder. In some cases these 

 bacilli were very abundant. Liquefying cocci, yeasts and various 

 kinds of bacilli were isolated in less abundance. Only three of the 

 no strains belonged in the B. coli group. Four of the twelve 

 strains isolated from the one case of typhoid relapse proved to be 

 B. typhosus. 



