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300 THE MICRO-ORGANISMS OF THE HUMAN MOUTH.
tion is requisite to detach infected particles from the surface of
the mouth and to cany them into the lungs. The very impor-
tant part probably played by the micrococcus of sputum septi-
c»mia in this connection has been discussed on pages 261, 262.

5. COMPLAINTS OF THE DIGESTIVE TRACT CAUSED BY
MOUTH -BACTERIA.

More than thirty years ago the fact was commonly recognized
that various disorders of the stomach and intestines owe their
origin to local fermentative and putrefactive processes. Accord-
ing to Baginsky/^" Bednar ^^'^ was the first to give clear expression
to this view, in 1854. Bednar expressed the view that indiges-
tion may be brought al)out dircd[>/ by taking into the stomach any
substance already in the state of fermentation ; iiidirectbj, when
the food taken into the stomach undergoes subsequent fermen-
tation on account of its disproportion to the digestive juices.
Henoch ^^- favored this conception; he emphasized the fact
that a large number of diarrhoeas, especially in the case of
infants brought up on the bottle or just weaned, depended solely
upon fermentative and decomposing processes of the contents of
the stomach and intestines, without a material alteration of the
mucous membrane of the alimentary canal.
Xaunyn^^^and Leube ^''* also regarded fermentative processes
in the stomach as important factors in the production of gastric
complaints: " the very pronounced chemical anomalies of gastric
digestion, recognizable through the fermentations in the stomach,
go hand in hand with the mechanical insufficiency."
De Bary,^''-^ on the contrary, concluded from his experiments
that the action of bacteria as a factor in the origin of dilatations
or other gastric complaints had been overrated.
Frerichs^^^ also wrote, "They (the bacteria) neither interfere
with nor further the digestive processes, but are harmless in-
mates."
Ewald,^^" whose examinations of the process of digestion and
digestive troubles have met with universal recognition, assigns
to gastric fermentations a position corresponding to their im-
portance.