Abstract
Vercellano found that there was absorption of bacteria during 24 hours, following ligation of the superior mesenteric vessels to the duodenum. His technic consisted of ligating both the superior mesenteric artery and vein, and withdrawing specimens of blood directly from the rabbit's heart at time of ligation and after 1, 4, 12, 18, and 24 hour intervals culturing this blood in broth for 24 hours. His conclusions were that the bacteremia present was due to the lack of blood supply. However, he failed to test absorption of bacteria within intervals of less than one hour.
Twenty-five dogs were used for this experiment under nembutal anesthesia (3% solution, using 1 cc. per kilo). In the control series (8 dogs) a 3-inch midline incision was made in the abdomen. Fifty cubic cm. of a suspension of B. prodigiosus (24 hour agar culture using 50 cc. of saline) was injected into the duodenum with a fine needle syringe. At 5 minute intervals, 2 drops of blood were taken from femoral vein and plated on agar.
In the second series (8 dogs) used the above technic and ligated 3 large rami of the superior mesenteric artery to the duodenum before injecting the B. prodigiosus suspension. Blood was withdrawn every 5 minutes for one hour and plated on agar.
In the third series (9 dogs) used the above technic with the exception that the blood was withdrawn at intervals for a 2-hour period. (See chart.)
The abscissa represents the time in minutes. The ordinate represents the number of colonies per cc. of blood.
Our results show that in the control series we have some slight absorption from the intestine immediately, while in the other 2 series, there is a marked increase in the rate of absorption.
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