We can't know that even innocuous bacteria might not be fatal to a gnotobiotic, alien population.
Or his medical science may have gotten oral bacteria under control with drugs.
The acid fermentation evolved neutralises the lime, while bacteriamultiply and rapidly reduce the rubbery limed hide to a soft, flaccid condition.
It is much safer to use and more uniform in its action than excrement, which develops bacteria rapidly in contact with gelatinous pelts, and could ultimately destroy them entirely.
There was a fresh relapse of the local peritonitis which extended beyond the boundaries of the limiting adhesions, and permitted the invasion by bacteria of the free abdominal cavity.
The first step towards preservation is the removal of the dirt unavoidably present, to the particles of which a considerable proportion of the bacteria adhere.
These bacteria are of many kinds, some of them spore-bearing.
At the boiling-point of water all living cells perish, but some spores of bacteria may survive for about three hours.
Although it has been asserted that many of them perish when kept for some time in the frozen condition, it is certain that the vast majority of bacteria and their germs remain merely dormant.
The housewife covering the jam with a thin paper soaked in brandy, or the potted meat with a thin layer of lard, attempts unconsciously to bar the road to bacteria and other minute organisms.
These experiments have also shown that the bactericidal power of blood-serum against typhoid bacteria was less in the case of drinkers than in that of abstainers.
Footnote A: Microbes or bacteria of different kinds.
It is true of thebacteria of decomposition, of the streptococci, and staphylococci of pus, and of diphtheria.
The work of these cells is to prey upon and take into their substance bacteria and other micro-organisms within the blood and tissues.
Rajewski's bacteria, it is needless to state, were simply the bacteria of common putrefaction.
Micrococci andbacteria have no pathological importance; they are seen in different diseases and in health.
I attach no especial importance to finding bacteria upon the surface of the intestine.
Klebs (1867) found spore-heaps and rod-like bacteria in the stools of dysentery as in cholera, but maintained that those of dysentery were larger and thinner than those of cholera.
Epithelial cells, the debris of digestion, micrococci, and bacteria are visible under the microscope.
Decomposition and fermentation both begin in the large intestine, so that the feces swarm with the bacteria and torulae productive of these processes.
Waldeyer was the first to demonstrate the presence of bacteria in the pigment-remains of the hepatic cells.
Under the general name of bacteria, there are multitudes of micro-organisms having pathogenic powers, each giving rise to some definite specific disease, and certain associations of different bacteria causing particular morbid conditions.
He investigated lactic-acid fermentation, the relation of bacteria to flesh inflammations and to the best methods of treating wounds antiseptically.
Louis Pasteur's studies in fermentation led to the discovery of lactic-acid bacteria and this was the starting point for a number of revolutionary discoveries in bacterial diseases.
If bacteria develop to an inordinate degree, if the contents of organs are not frequently discharged, fermentative processes may be set up, which result in disease.
The term bacteria or microbe refers to particles of matter, microscopic in size, which belong to the vegetable kingdom, where they are known as fungi.
The blood, defibrinated and freshly drawn, has marked germicidal action; for bacteria its action is decidedly deadly, even hours after it has been drawn from the body.
Bacteria cannot exist without water; certain forms require oxygen, while others thrive equally well without it; some thrive in solution of simple salts, while others require albuminoid material.
Septicæmia is caused by the absorption of the products of putrefaction, induced before bacteria can multiply inside or outside the body.
Other bacteria were experimented upon in blood with similar results, but the destruction of the organism from putrefaction was much less marked, and on some varieties the blood had little or no action.
Bacteria must always multiply and exist at the expense of the body which they infest, and the more weakened the vital forces become, the more favorable is the soil for their development.
The spiro-bacteria multiply by spores, although little is at present known of their life history.
It becomes necessary then for us to inquire: If bacteria cause disease, in what manner do they produce it?
We have seen that bacteria differ greatly in appearance from the elongated dot of the bacterium proper, to the elongated rod or cylinder of the bacillus, and the long spirals of spiro-bacteria.
Thus we are enabled in the laboratory to determine whether the bacilli found in sputum, for example, are from tubercle or are the bacteria of decomposition.
Sauerkraut has shared the fate of sour milk, and because of its acid bacteria has been accepted by Metchnikoff as an ally.
Misophobia, or the fear of dirt, has grown much more common in recent years, and the spread of the knowledge of the wide diffusion of bacteria has added to the unreasoning dread that possesses these people.
He found, therefore, that the remedy for disease was to take some of the culture-infusion in which malignant bacteriahad just perished, and inject it into the veins of the sick man.
More than a century ago it had been observed, where the bacteria of contagious disorders were bred in culture-infusions, for purposes of study, that after a time they became surrounded by masses of substance which destroyed them.
But it has been kept on ice, has perhaps been filtered, and many of its bacteria may have been killed by the long-continued cold temperature.
Under these conditions the bacteria do not commonly have an opportunity of growing sufficiently to produce their poisonous products before the milk is consumed.
The germs of typhoid, diphtheria, and tuberculosis are probably rendered harmless by such treatment, and these are the chief pathogenic bacteria of milk.
These few spores that are left may become serious, far more so than the bacteria in raw milk.
These latter troubles, according to our present knowledge, are not produced by distinct species of bacteria finding entrance into the body and growing there, as are the other diseases mentioned.
We have been told of the countless millions of bacteriawhich we have been drinking daily.
This was done before the matter of its relation to bacteria was understood, and when physicians simply conceived that the boiling rendered the milk more digestible.
Practically, then, these bacteria that resist the moderate heat of Pasteurization are of no serious importance in connection with the healthfulness of milk.
The resisting spores above mentioned are of course not destroyed, and many other bacteria are left uninjured.
If there should be some milk brought to the city which contained typhoid bacteria it would be impossible to determine the fact, for such milk, after mixing, would be thoroughly scattered beyond any possibility of following it.
Even with the high temperature that is used, it is impossible to be sure that all bacteria spores are destroyed.
Pasteurized milk is not designed for keeping, and those who use it know that while the strictly pathogenic bacteria are killed the milk will not keep.
From this we see that these bacteria or germs work best in the soil that has conditions necessary for the growth and development of plant roots.
These nodules are filled with bacteria or germs and these germs have the power of taking nitrogen from the air which finds its way into the soil.
The breaking down of the humus and building of the nitrogen into other substances is the work of another set of bacteria or germs called nitrifying germs.
They do it through the acid of microscopic organisms called bacteria which live in nodules or tubercles on the roots of these plants (Figs.
It would take ten thousand average sized bacteria placed side by side to measure one inch.
The soil of every fertile field is full of very small or microscopic plants calledbacteria or germs.
Indirectly through these factors it aids the work of the beneficial soil bacteria and the chemical changes in the process of preparing plant food for crop use.
The bacteria which produce the most rapid fermentation in manure need plenty of air with its oxygen.
The bacteria take nitrogen from the air which penetrates the soil and give it over to the plants.
This they do not of their own power but through the aid of very minute plants called bacteria or nitrogen-fixing germs.
The bodies of man and of higher animals are possessed of a complex mechanism which resists the harmful action of bacteria and their poisons.
Such death can be avoided by changing the external conditions, and, if the acids or alkalies produced by thesebacteria are neutralised, the bacteria survive.
The higher plants may be subjects of auto-intoxication in the same fashion as bacteria and yeasts.
I think, therefore, that lactic bacteria can render a great service in the fight against intestinal putrefaction.
Just as sleep may be transformed to natural death, so also the arrest of lactic fermentation may be followed by the death of the bacteria which form the acid.
Although the existence of auto-intoxication in the higher plants is still only a hypothesis, the natural death of bacteria and yeasts by poisons which they themselves produce is an ascertained fact.
Rist and Khoury[143] have come to the conclusion that the Egyptian “leben” contained a flora composed of five species, three of which arebacteria and two yeasts.
The bacteria produce lactic acid and the yeasts alcohol.
They are very difficult to kill, and unless they are completely destroyed in the canning process, they will develop into active bacteria when conditions again become favorable.
It is important to close one jar before filling another, because the longer a jar remains open the more bacteria will be permitted to enter.
However, none of these things are essential to the keeping of any sterile food, by which is meant food in which all bacteria or sources of bacteria have been rendered inactive by the application of sufficient heat.
Spores are a protective form that many kinds of bacteria assume under unfavorable conditions.
Even by working as rapidly as possible and taking the greatest precaution, a certain number of bacteria are bound to enter in this method of canning.
Some foods are more difficult to keep than others, because bacteria act on them more readily and the foods themselves contain nothing that prevents their growth.
It also assists in destroying bacteria by suddenly shocking the spores after the application of heat.
Likewise, the jars must be filled to the top and the covers put on and made as firm and tight as possible at once, so that as few bacteria as possible will enter.
Sugar is used in such quantity in the preparation of preserves that it acts as a preservative and prevents bacteria from attacking the foods in which it is used.
However, when canning does not prove effective, it is because undesirable bacteria are present in the food.
Since that time methods of canning that are much more successful have been originated, and the present methods are the result of the study of bacteria and their functions in nature.
Jars that close with difficulty, especially if the tops screw on, are not likely to keep food successfully because the bacteria in the air will have a chance to enter and thus cause the food to spoil.
If the stem of a plant freshly wilted from this disease be severed, the bacteria will ooze out in dirty white drops on the cut surface.
The bacteria causing wilt not only spread through the soil but are carried by insects from freshly wilted to healthy plants.
Until recent times the exposure of the dental pulp inevitably led to its death and disintegration, and, by invasion of bacteria via the pulp canal, set up an inflammatory process which eventually caused the loss of the entire tooth.
The disease is brought about by a group of bacteria which develop in the mouth, growing naturally upon the débris of starchy or carbohydrate food, producing fermentation of the mass, with lactic acid as the end product.
The chromacea are plasm-forming beings, and therefore they are plants; the bacteria are plasm-eating beings, and so are animals.
Dana, while admitting nothing specific, deems it antecedently probable that algae and later microscopic fungi related to bacteria existed then, living in water well up toward the boiling-point.
So little do the majority of the bacteria differ morphologically from the chromacea, that on the score of structure the two are not to be catalogued apart.
But the belief that the microscopic organisms, such asbacteria and infusoria, were spontaneously generated in stagnant water or decaying organic liquids was held by some naturalists until very recent times.
These spores germinate quickly when they fall into water or some organic liquid, and the rapid succession of generations soon gives rise to the hosts of bacteria and one-celled animals which infest all standing water.
Footnote: This prediction is fully carried out in the present day successful use of considerable amounts of blood in cultures and the resultant frequent demonstrations of bacteria present in the circulation in many infections.
Pasteur could not have meant to say that both bacteria are anaerobes.
In spite of the speedy death of the bacteria beneath the centre of the glass, we see life prolonged there if by chance a bubble of air has been enclosed.
Aerobian bacteria lose all power of movement when suddenly plunged into carbonic acid gas; they recover it, however, as if they had only been suffering from anaesthesia, as soon as they are brought into the air again.
All round this bubble a vast number of bacteria collect in a thick, moving circle, but as soon as all the oxygen of the bubble has been absorbed they fall apparently lifeless, and are scattered by the movement of the liquid.
The liquid became turbid from a development of bacteria and then underwent butyric fermentation.
By his studies in the culture of bacteria of attenuated virulence he extended widely the practise of inoculation with a milder form of various diseases, with a view to producing immunity.
Bacteria may permeate a cast after the urine is voided.
The number of bacteria which have been taken up by a definite number of leukocytes is counted, and the average number of bacteria per leukocyte is calculated; this gives the "phagocytic index.
Normal urine is free from bacteria in the bladder, but becomes contaminated in passing through the urethra.
Most bacteria can be detected only by culture methods.
By this method Gram-staining bacteria are purple; Gram-decolorizing bacteria and nuclei of cells are brown or red.
Bacteria produce a cloudiness which will not clear upon filtration.
It brings out well all cells and all bacteria except the tubercle bacillus.
Already, enough bacteria have been released to destroy all life, though it will take longer than we desire.
This contained bacteriathat were harmless in themselves, and were hostile to those of the Gray Plague.
There its operator, a deformed cripple, left bacteria similar to those he had given to the United States.
Twort advanced the thought that the agent might be a living, filtered virus, although he favored the theory that it was an enzyme derived from the bacteria themselves.
By the action of nitrifying bacteria on this organic matter, nitrate salts are believed to have formed which were leached out by surface and ground waters, and probably carried in solution to enclosed bodies of water.
Bacteria are supposed to have played a part in the early stage of alteration, sometimes called the biochemical stage.
Not only the ordinary bacteria of the skin, but also those from the rectum, and, under certain conditions, from the urine and the vaginal secretion abound on the perineal and vulval surfaces.
After sexual congress the vagina contains pathogenic organisms, and in conditions such as carcinoma of the cervix and body of the uterus, and in all forms of vaginitis, many varieties of bacteria are present in great numbers.
Before proceeding to practical details, it will be useful to consider a few points regarding the distribution ofbacteria in these parts.
Slight turbidity suggests early purulent meningitis, especially if bacteria are present, but not necessarily that the case is hopeless.
