THE PROBLEM OF INTESTINAL ANTISEPSIS—EXPERIMENTAL OBSERVATIONS ON MICE

¹ From the Pathological Department of the University and Western Infirmary, Glasgow

The tests indicate the difficulty of influencing to an appreciable degree the intestinal flora of mice even by means of powerfully antiseptic substances administered per os either in doses which approach the limit of toleration, or in excessive amounts which are definitely toxic for the animal, as shown by marked loss of weight. In no instance was there an approach to sterilisation of the faeces, although occasionally, e.g., with Lumiére's silver preparation, a diminution in the numbers of the coliform group appeared to occur; at the same time, however, abundant staphylococci and lactic organisms persisted in spite of the treatment. This compound, according to Lumiére, practically sterilised the intestinal content of a dog after four doses of 0.1 gram per kilogram, given daily in the form of a pill. Sulphato green and sulphato violet are in a class by themselves, since, according to Coplans and Green, although they are not antiseptic in vitro, when injected intravenously into rabbits they are broken up in the body and excreted as the highly bactericidal substances, brilliant green and crystal violet. However, antiseptic action in the intestinal tract could not be demonstrated in the present experiments. The results with hexylresorcinol are in substantial agreement with those of Ratcliffe (1929), who found that rats when fed with this substance showed actually an increase of lactose-fermenting bacilli (principally B. aerogenes) in the caecal content, the aciduric organisms being completely obscured.