Considerable attention has been paid during recent years to the study of the intestinal flora of the breast-fed and the artificially fed infant. In general, investigators are agreed that the predominating intestinal organisms of the breast-fed infant are gram-positive, mostly B. bifidus, whereas in the artificially fed infant a greater variety of bacteria are present, most conspicuous of which are those of the colon-aerogenes group. Authors agree, also, that the bacteria of the meconium are of various kinds but that with the disappearance of the meconium stool, the flora merges into that of the typical bifidus-predominating type. Much of the information has been derived from direct smears, from sediments from fermentation tubes inoculated with fecal material and from other cultural methods.
The original object of the present study was to determine what differences, if any, might be found in the intestinal flora as the result of different kinds of artificial