INTESTINAL FLORA IN NEW-BORN INFANTS: WITH A DESCRIPTION OF A NEW PATHOGENIC ANAEROBE, BACILLUS DIFFICILIS

Following our first article on the bacterial flora of first passage specimens of meconium from fifty new-born infants¹ we studied the daily microbial changes in the feces of ten normal breast-fed infants up to the tenth day, when they left the hospital.

HISTORICAL REVIEW  The early invasion of the intestinal tracts of new-born infants by bacteria, either ascending or descending, often within ten hours after birth and before feeding, first observed microscopically by Breslau² in 1866, was confirmed by Billroth³ in 1874 and by Nothnagel⁴ in 1881. Using iodine as a stain, Nothnagel assumed to identify Saccharomyces ellipsoideus, Bacillus subtilis and the so-called clostridium of Prazmowski, which he regarded as identical with Bacillus amylobacter of Trecul and van Tieghem and the "vibrion septique" of Pasteur; but we feel that even now, with greatly improved methods of staining, identification of any of these is impossible.Nothnagel was