Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  \ 
December,  1919.  -» 
Bacteria  and  Vitamins. 
813 
BACTERIA  AND  VITAMINS.1 
The  demonstration  that  the  nutritive  welfare  of  the  higher  ani- 
mals is  dependent  on  an  adequate  supply  not  only  of  the  familiar 
foodstuffs  but  also  of  certain  as  yet  unidentified  "  food  accessories," 
the  so-called  vitamins,  has  been  stimulating  in  various  fields  of  bio- 
logic science.  The  hypothesis  of  the  role  of  vitamines  in  nutrition 
has  been  transferred  to  the  growth  of  plants  by  Bottomley2  with 
results  that  speak  strongly  for  an  analogy  between  plants  and  ani- 
mals with  respect  to  the  promoting  factors.  Subsequently  the  pos- 
sible part  that  may  be  played  by  substances  analogous  in  function  to 
the  vitamins  of  animal  nutrition  has  been  debated  with  respect  to 
the  multiplication  of  bacteria. 
Bacteriologists  have  long  recognized  the  difficulties  attending  the 
production  of  cultures  of  microorganisms  on  synthetic  mediums 
prepared  from  purified  substances.  Blood  serum,  tissue  extracts 
and  decoctions  and  other  mixtures  of  largely  unknown  chemical 
make-up  have  been  employed  by  preference  as  culture  mediums  for 
bacteria.  For  a  long  time  the  necessity  of  supplying  such  tissue 
products  was  assumed  to  be  attributable  to  the  fact  that  the  lowest 
forms  of  life  can  attack  only  a  limited  group  of  fairly  simple  com- 
pounds. The  native  proteins,  for  example,  are  singularly  resistant 
to  direct  disintegration  by  bacteria ;  whereas  the  cleavage  products 
of  proteins,  the  amino-acids,  form  an  excellent  nitrogenous  pabulum 
for  microbial  nutrition.  Latterly,  however,  it  has  become  apparent 
that  mixtures  of  even  such  simple  nutrient  fragments  as  amino- 
acids,  sugars  and  inorganic  salts,  in  mixtures  of  suitable  reaction 
are  poor  culture  mediums.  To  earlier  evidences  of  the  need  of 
something  more  in  the  successful  cultivation  of  bacteria,  particularly 
the  more  delicate  pathogenic  varieties,3  further  testimony  has  been 
1  From  Jour.  Amer.  Med.  Asso.,  Oct.  18,  1919. 
2  Bottomley,  W.  B. :  "  Some  Accessory  Factors  in  Plant  Growth  and  Nu- 
trition," Proc.  Roy.  Soc.  London,  Series  B,  88:  23.7,  1914-1915. 
3  Cole,  S.  W.,  and  Lloyd,  D.  J. :  "  The  Preparation  of  Solid  and  Liquid 
Media  for  the  Cultivation  of  the  Gonococcus,"  /.  Path,  and  BacterioL,  21 : 
267,  1916-1917.  Gordon,  M.  H. :  Hine,  J.  G.,  and  Flack,  M. :  "  An  Experi- 
mental Study  of  the  Cultural  Requirements  of  the  Meningococcus,"  Brit. 
Med.  Jour.,  11:  678,  1916.  Lloyd,  D.  J.:  "On  Vitamine,  Amino-Acids  and 
Other  Chemical  Factors  Involved  in  the  Growth  of  the  Meningococcus,"  /. 
Path,  and  BacterioL,  21  :  113,  1916V-1917.  Agulhon,  H.,  and  Lyroux,  R. :  "  Con- 
tribution a  l'etude  des  vitamines  utilisables  a  la  culture  des  microorganismes  ; 
application  au  bacille  de  l'innuenza  (B.  de  Pfeiffer),"  Compt.  rend.  Aead.  d. 
sc.,  167:  597,  iQi8- 
