Page 331 - My FlipBook

COMPLAINTS OF THE DIGESTIVE TRACT. 303

"When, therefore, Sucksdorf conchides that out of one hundred
bacteria found in the faeces ninety-seven must be considered as
derived from the food and drink and only three from the oral
cavity itself, this conclusion may possibly be correct in the case
of a healthy, well-cared-for mouth and badly preserved food; in
general, however, I do not think that it is so, as is shown by his
experiments on a second person, where 30 per cent, of the bacteria
present in the faeces must be regarded as derived from the mouth.
From neglected mouths, such as repeatedly come under the
notice of dentists, enormous quantities of bacteria must reach
the intestinal tract in spite of the sterilization of the food. In a
very unclean mouth examined for this purpose I estimated, by
culture methods, the number of cultivable bacteria at 1,140,-
000,000 ; many of these were doubtless carried to the stomach
during every meal, to be replaced by others developing between
meals and over night.
The following case, among many communicated by von Kac-
zorowski, proves clearly enough that the micro-organisms in an
unclean mouth, quite independently of those introduced with
food and drink, suffice to produce intense fermentative processes,
chronic dyspepsia, etc., in the stomach.
" A hale and hearty landed proprietor, fifty years of age, who,
according to his statement, had never been ill, nevertheless com-
plained for some years of a tronblesome inflation of the stomach
after meals, which did not subside for hours. The examination
revealed an artificial plate of the upper jaw, which the patient
bad not touched for two years. After removing it, I observed
an intense redness and sponginess of the gums and hard palate.
After the patient had become accustomed to removing his arti-
ficial teeth after every meal, and to disinfecting his mouth, the
digestive troubles ceased without the use of remedies, and after
four weeks, when I saw him again, a swelling of the liver with
which he had been aftectedfor sometime had also disappeared."
During 1885-86 I made some experiments in order to determine
the relation of mouth-, stomach-, and intestine-bacteria to each
other, and also concerning certain disturbances in the stomach and
intestines caused by them, the results of which I have communi-
cated in the Deutsche med. Woehenschr.,^ and here recapitulate :