FERMENTED MILKS. 5 
place in the upper two-thirds of the colon. The stools were acid 
or neutral. 
The same writer in another paper (14) shows that intestinal putre- 
faction as indicated by the excretion of ethereal sulphates in the 
urine was materially reduced by the addition of a sour milk to the 
diet and that this reduction, which may reasonably be attributed to a 
disinfection of the large intestine, continued after the ingestion of sour 
milk was discontinued. This may be taken as an indication that the 
growth of the bacteria continued after their introduction ceased. 
This disinfecting action of the lactic-acid culture was not appreciably 
influenced by variations in the amount of sugar eaten, indicating 
that the ordinary diet contains sufficient sugar to support the growth 
of the lactic-acid bacteria in the intestine. 
Belonovsky (3) arrived at somewhat similar results in experiments 
in which mice were fed a basic ration of sterilized grain and water. 
Mice which received in addition milk cultures of B. bulgaricus for one 
and one-half months showed this organism in the droppings 15 days 
after the last feeding. When the milk cultures were fed for four 
months B. bulgaricus was present in the droppings for four weeks after 
the last feeding. He states that the bacteria in the droppings, espe- 
cially the gas-forming bacteria, were very much reduced by feeding 
B. bulgaricus, but were not affected by the addition of the basic diet 
of sterile milk or milk curdled with lactic acid. 
Many experiments of a similar nature could be quoted, as well as 
clinical observations, tending to show that the ingestion of milk 
cultures of B. bulgaricus reduces or eliminates evidences of intestinal 
putrefaction. On the other hand, Herter (41) found that in the 
digestive tract of a monkey, killed after feeding for two weeks on milk 
soured with B. bulgaricus, this organism was abundant in the upper 
part of the small intestine only. In the lower part and in the large 
intestine B. bulgaricus was present in only moderate numbers as com- 
pared with other bacteria. 
Eahe (TO), in a recently published paper, maintains that the differ- 
ence between the B. bulgaricus and certain acid-forming bacteria, 
which are known to occur normally in the intestines, is so slight that 
they can be distinguished only with difficulty, and he suggests that 
belief on the part of some investigators that B. bulgaricus becomes 
established in the intestines was caused by their inability to distin- 
guish between these two types. His work tends to show that while 
the B. bulgaricus appears in the feces during the feeding, it persists 
for only a few days after the ingestion of cultures ceases. 
The situation may, perhaps, be fairly summed up by saying that 
while there is no conclusive evidence that B. bulgaricus is able to 
establish itself in the intestines in such a way that other bacteria are 
driven out, it is undoubtedly true that in many cases marked improve- 
