1 4 o THOMPSON YATES LABORATORIES REPORT 
In order to ascertain whether enteritidis spores were constantly present in 
normal faeces, five consecutive examinations were made at intervals of about a 
fortnight from the stools of another healthy individual. The quantity tested was a 
platinum loopful or less. 
In all five examinations the milk tube presented the changes characteristic of 
enteritidis ; three cultures were inoculated. 
Examination 
Enteritidis Spores 
Results of Inoculation 
I 
Present 
Death in about twelve hours 
2 
Present 
Death in three days 
3 
Present 
Not inoculated 
4 
Present 
Death in about thirty hours 
5 
Present 
Not inoculated 
To ascertain how long enteritidis spores in faecal material survived, four 
samples of stool from the same individual were enclosed in sterile Petri dishes and 
kept for a period varying from one week to three months. Milk tubes inoculated 
with one loopful of the faecal matter from the centre of each sample and treated in 
the usual way, presented the changes typical of enteritidis. Two cubic centimetres 
of whey obtained from the oldest sample were inoculated into a guinea-pig of four 
hundred grammes. The animal died in twelve hours with characteristic oedema. 
It will be noted in these experiments that the virulence of the cultures, 
although made from recently sterilised milk, was often sub-normal. However, this 
diminution may be more apparent than real. I have frequently observed, when a 
few hours after inoculation the large subcutaneous tumour forms, an escape of the 
enteritidis-containing fluid from the site of the puncture. If the leak is considerable 
the guinea-pig usually recovers with local sloughing of the skin, and the virulence of 
the culture, which may have been normal, is apparently diminished. Leaking is 
especially liable to occur when, as obtained in the majority of my experiments, the 
skin of the animal was shaved over an area of the size of a two shilling piece, and, 
consequently, the protection afforded by the hair removed. That accidental 
diminution of the virulence may take place is proved by the following experiment. 
On one occasion two guinea-pigs were inoculated at the same time with milk cultures 
obtained from the same material. One cubic centimetre of an emulsion of 
diarrhoeal stool, reduced to a specific gravity of 1005, was diluted 100 and 10,000 
times, and inoculated into tubes of recently sterilised milk, a and b respectively. 
At the end of two days both tubes presented the characteristic changes, and 
on cover slip examination, using Gram's stain, were found to contain apparently 
pure cultures of enteritidis ; spores were absent. Two cubic centimetres of whey 
