Page 339 - My FlipBook

COMPLAINTS OF THE DIGESTIVE TRACT. 311

which ill alburaiuoussuhstancesalso produces considerable quan-
tities of gas (SH2 and XH3), was found in the faeces as well as in
a gangrenous tooth-pulp. Its possible agency in the causation of
dental abscesses has been referred to on page 36.
Three of the other four gas-forming bacteria I found in the
stomach, and one in the fseces. It is not difficult to see what
disturbances might be produced by an abnormal development
of these bacteria in the stomach or intestines.
A further question of interest regards the peptonizing action,
particularly of the l:>acteria of the intestines. By fsir the greater
number of the diti'erent species which I have examined grow
well on boiled white of Qgg., and can therefore be said to possess
a peptonizing action. In some cases the albumen became com-
pletely liquefied by the action of the organisms. Whether they
form more peptone than they need for their own nourishment,
and whether and to what extent they may thereby be of use to
the human body, is a question whose solution presents difficul-
ties not yet overcome. In a large quantity of sterilized white of
Qgg infected with a comma-bacillus, I found traces of peptone
at the end of the third day.
Very few of the organisms here treated of were found to pos-
sess any marked diastatic action. Of nine species which I ex-
amined specially with reference to this property, only one gave
a decidedly affirmative result. By the action of this bacterium
starch was converted into sugar, and this again into acid.
It is generally taken for granted that a bacterium which
grows on boiled potato must possess a diastatic action. Such
evidence is, however, of little value, because the bacterium is not
dependent upon the starch of the potato alone, but may derive
sufficient nourishment from the sugar and albumen of the potato
to maintain its existence for some time.
Xot one, out of more than fifty species that I examined, be-
longed to that group of micro-organisms called anaerobian; i.e.,
no one of them grew better or exclusively under exclusion of
atmospheric air. On the other hand, I found every gradation,
from those which showed no development whatever under exclu-
sion of atmospheric air to those which grew equally well with or
without it.