The relation of the intestinal flora to the scurvy of guinea pigs and of infants

Abstract

The question recently has been raised as to whether scurvy in guinea pigs and in human beings is due to constipation and to the putrefactive activity of the bacteria in the intestinal tract. In order to determine this point a study of the intestinal flora was made in guinea pigs on a normal diet, on a diet which produced scurvy, and again on a diet which cured this disorder. For this purpose cultures and grain stained films were made from the feces, as well as from the different levels of the small and large intestine immediately after chloroforming the animals. This study on guinea pigs is portrayed in Table I.

It will be seen that proteolytic bacteria other than subtloid types were not found in the intestinal tract; that the bacteria which were cultivated were merely those found in the outer world, for example, on dried foodstuffs. Similar organisms, indeed, were cultivated from the hay and oats which were fed these animals. Attention may be called to the fact that with none of the diets did B. coli develop, and that it was isolated from only one animal. The number of viable bacteria will also be noted as remarkably few, generally less than 1,000 per milligram of material. Among these there were hardly any that were actively proteolytic. Furthermore, a point of prime importance, there was no change in the flora on adding orange juice to the diet, although the scorbutic symptoms disappeared. It is our opinion, therefore, that most of the bacteria entering the intestinal tract are destroyed, and that the pabulum is not such as to encourage the growth of native intestinal bacteria.

A similar study was carried out on the stools of three infants suffering from scurvy.