Abstract
One of us (W. L. H.) reported in 1919 the isolation of a minute anærobe out of material from the mouth of five consecutive persons not suffering from influenza, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
The material was cultured on cooked meat and other media, and the bacterium attracted attention because of the abundance of gas it produced in cooked meat medium, but more particularly on account of its small size and the chance of its being confused in direct smears and mixed cultures with B. influenzæ. It was thought at the time to be closely related to the Staphylococcus parvulus of Veillon and Züber, but the descriptions of this gram negative anærobe are too meager to permit complete identification. An anærobe, which we considered to be the same, was reported at the meeting of the Association of Pathologists and Bacteriologists in May, 1922, as “A very small anærobe giving gas in tissue.” The site of infection in the neck of this patient was in direct communication with the mouth cavity, and it may well have been an accidental contamination or something more important. A non-hemolytic streptococcus was found associated with it.
Anærobes which we consider as identical with the six strains mentioned have been readily isolated from the mouth cavity of four of us in the laboratory at Stanford University, California. It would appear that this anrerobe, or very closely related forms, is commonly if not always present in the oral cavities of human beings.
The anrerobe is very small, well under 0.5 micra long, by a little less in width. (Measurements under a half micron are not very accurate). It is smaller than B. prodigiosus, B. bronchosepticus and B. influemczæ. Illustrations of B. pneumosintes, as given by Olitsky and Gates in their earlier reports, indicate its size.
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